Prof Will Wise

Prof. William Wise (BSc, MSc, PhD, MRSC, FSLTC) completed his PhD at the University of Leicester (UK) in 2011. Although his PhD was in organic chemistry he subsequently changed his research direction and specialised in the biopolymer field; using ionic liquids to modify starch based materials, some of which are in the process of being commercialised.

As a Senior Lecturer in Leather Science at The Institute for Creative Leather Technologies (ICLT - University of Northampton) in May 2014 he is now applying this same technology to the field of leather manufacture with some promising and intriguing preliminary results.

In September 2019 his job title changed to Research Leader for ICLT, which involves having an overview of the research within the institute and driving the research programme.  His constant research outputs, conference presentations and status within the international leather community resulted in him obtaining a Professorship in August 2022.

Prof Will Wise is an active PhD supervisor and has had an academic role on a number of Innovate UK Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP’s).  This includes:

• Academic supervisor on a KTP Project – Callam Mackay – Working with an external company “Xeros” on utilising a bead technology as an alternative medium to water for leather manufacture.
• Lead academic on a KTP Project - Luc Vogtlander - Working with an external company “Scottish Leather Group” on utilising other industry waste streams as alternative sources of tanning agents.
• PhD director of studies – Rebecca Colley - An investigation into the enabling, and inhibiting, factors for effectively applying circular economy business models in the Electrical and Electronic Equipment (EEE) sector.
• PhD director of studies - Hussein Sheikh Ali Mohamoud - Causative Genes Identification in Consanguineous Families with Monogenic Disorders
• PhD supervisor - Oluwaseyi Omoloso - Sustainability in the Leather Industry: Exploring the relationship between Social Sustainability Drivers, Practices and Indicators
• MPhil supervisor - Luc Vogtlander - Investigating a unique tannage for leather from waste materials.
• MPhil supervisor – Callum Mackay - Applications of Polymer Spheres in Leather Processing

In addition to these students, Prof. Will Wise has an interest in a sustainable and scientific approach to leather manufacture; this includes use of alternative solvents, upcycling/recycling leather and leather manufacturing by-products, waste minimisation and understanding the physical and chemical properties of leather at a fundamental level. Many of his projects have been commercially funded in so called ‘private client’ research.

Prof. Will Wise is the Programme Leader on the MSc Leather Technology and other associated level 7 programmes including the PGCert and PGDip.  He is also the Level 7 and 8 research degree programme leader for ICLT.

Will delivers Leather Science modules over to a range of levels from level 4 (yr 1 of the BSc programme) to level 7 (Masters level).