Dr. Buckland joined the IRC in Biomedical Materials in 1995. His bioceramics PhD, sponsored by DePuy, is the subject of a recently awarded patent. He has held several successful engineering consultancy contracts with Ford and RPC Engines as well as working as a postdoctoral researcher in the IRC. Since December 1999, Dr Buckland has been employed as the Operations Manager at ApaTech, and was responsible for establishing pilot scale production of IRC-developed hydroxyapatite-based bone graft substitute technology as well as obtaining regulatory approval for products. He played a major role in setting up the company’s quality system and technical infrastructure. In addition to supervising production and technical staff he is continuing to develop second generation materials and production techniques.