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Institute of Dentistry - Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry
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Professor Robert Hill, BSc. MsC. Ph.D. DIC.

Robert

Professor of Physical Sciences in Relation to Dentistry,

Email: r.hill@qmul.ac.uk
Telephone: +44 (0) 20 7882 5974
Room Number: Office 2.20, Francis Bancroft Building, Mile End Campus

Profile

Professor Robert Hill is a Materials Engineer with a Ph.D in Chemical Engineering from Imperial College. In his early career he worked with Alan Wilson on Glass Ionomer Cements (GIC)s and in 1988 was part of the Group that won the Queens Award. He was formerly Professor of Biomaterials at Imperial College.Robert Hill is the inventor of Serenocem® a GIC for ENT surgery and a co inventor of Ultradex Recalcifying and Whitening – a nano hydroxyapatite toothpaste. In 2013 he won the Alan Wilson prize for Dental Materials and led the group that won  the Armourers and Brasiers Venture Prize. In 2014 he founded BIoMin Technologies Ltd (see www.biomin.co.uk)  a Queen Mary Spin out company based on key patents filed on Fluoride Containing Bioactive Glasses. The company produces Bioactive Glass Remineralising Hypersensitivity toothpastes that are sold in Europe, China, India and Australia.

He is a member of TC4 of the International Congress of Glass that deals with Medical and Dental Glasses and TC7 that deals with Glass-ceramics.

 

Radio 4 Program on Fluorine featuring Professor Hill

 

You Tube Video on Fluoride Containing Bioactive Glasses

 

Centre: Oral Bioengineering

Teaching

Professor Hill teaches Dental Materials to BDS, DClin and MSc Students.

Research

Research Interests:

Professor Hills research interests include Bioactive Glasses, Glass Ionomer Cements, Apatites, Composite Fillings, Varnishes  Adhesives Bone Grafts, Bone Substitutes and Glass-ceramics .Professor Hills research  is very multidisciplinary ranging from the fundamentals of glass structure  and glass in glass phase separation to how cells interact with materials. He has published over 250 refereed papers and filed more than twenty patents. He is particularly known for his expertise in translating laboratory research into commercial products. He works closely with companies producing Dental Materials and the Oral Healthcare Industry.

Currently his major interests are in researching and developing Fluoride Containing Bioactive Glasses for Dental Composites Varnishes, Periodontal Treatment  and Orthodontic Adhesives. He is also working on glass-ceramics based on Mica,  Chlorapatite and other phases.

He has supervised over 50 Ph.D students  many of whom are now University lecturers or Professors or have senior positions in industry. He is currently supervising 7 Ph.D students and 3 DClin Students.

Publications

  1. Henry, J., et al., The investigation of the crystalline phases development in Macor® glass-ceramic. Journal of the European Ceramic Society, 2018. 38(1): p. 245-251.
  2. Taha, A.A., et al., The effect of bioactive glasses on enamel remineralization: A systematic review. Journal of dentistry, 2017.
  3. Taha, A.A., et al., Development of a novel bioactive glass for air-abrasion to selectively remove orthodontic adhesives. Clinical oral investigations, 2017: p. 1-11.
  4. Swansbury, L.A., et al., Modelling the Onset of Phase Separation in CaO-SiO2-CaCl2 Chlorine-Containing Silicate Glasses. The Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 2017.
  5. Sriranganathan, D., et al., The effect of the incorporation of fluoride into strontium containing bioactive glasses. Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids, 2017. 457: p. 25-30.

All publications

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