Dr. McCarthy is Senior Lecturer in Composites Design and Testing at the School of Engineering, University of Edinburgh. His main composites experience is in impact-damage evaluation in laminated aerospace composites (at University of Manchester with Airbus UK, Spirit Aerosystems and National Composite Centre, ‘InnovateUK/ATI Wings of the Future Project 2014-2016)). 

At Edinburgh, he has been Principal Investigator of projects: 1. CAMREG TideFlex, focussing on the design of passively morphing trailing edges for tidal turbine blades to minimise operational energy loss; and 2. OGIC CompClamp on novel composite clamp design for oil riser components. He recently worked on oil seal processing and development for engineering contractors in Ecuador and currently supervises four PhD students, two of which are industrial PhD studentships in the marine composites sector. He is also coinvestigator in the FASTBLADE project (EPSRC Structural Composites Research Facility) which aims to deliver accelerated lifetime fatigue testing to large composite structures (e.g. tidal turbine blades, 12 m long). 

He is interested in all aspects of composite testing, particularly in micromechanics, with a special focus on fibre fragmentation problems under uniaxial loading. Having a chemical engineering background, he also has experience with polymerisation and polymer characterisation, including reactive injection moulding of thermoplastic composites featuring in-situ ring opening polymerisation as a cost-effective alternative to full-viscosity thermoplastic processing. The synthesis of polymer complexes for osteoblast bone grafts is also an area of interest. He has also worked industrially in commercial elastomer formulation and characterisation at Perlast Ltd, Blackburn, UK, (2007-2009) and in gas plant process design at Costain Ltd., Manchester, UK (1998-1999).

Reviewer for several publications: (Elsevier): Applied Clay Science, Applied Energy, Combustion and Flame, Journal of Molecular Structure, Polymer.

Key Publications:

1. Novel lactone‐layered double hydroxide ionomer powders for bone tissue repair, T Zhou, ED McCarthy, C Soutis, SH Cartmell, Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part B: Applied Biomaterials (2020) https://doi.org/10.1002/jbm.b.34614.

2. Manufacturing of unidirectional stitched glass fabric reinforced polyamide 6 by thermoplastic resin transfer moulding, JJ Murray, C Robert, K Gleich, ED McCarthy, CM Ó Brádaigh, Materials & Design (2020), 108512, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2020.108512.

3. The fiber break evolution process in a 2-D epoxy/glass multi-fiber array, ED McCarthy, JH Kim, NA Heckert, SD Leigh, JW Gilman, GA Holmes, Composites Science and Technology (2015) 121, 73-81, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compscitech.2014.10.013.

4. Formation of extended ionomeric network by bulk polymerization of l, d-lactide with layered-double-hydroxide, ED McCarthy, M Zammarano, DM Fox, RC Nieuwendaal, YS Kim, Polymer (2013) 54 (1), 90-101, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polymer.2012.11.037.

5. Modelling flaming combustion in glass fibre-reinforced composite laminates, ED McCarthy BK Kandola, G Edwards, P Myler, J Yuan, YC Wang, E Kandare, J. Comp. Mat. (2013) 47 (19), 2371-2384, https://doi.org/10.1177/0021998312457962.

6. Factors affecting the coefficient of thermal expansion in fluoroelastomer seal material, ED McCarthy, Sealing Technology, December 2008, 7-12, https://doi.org/10.1016/S1350-4789(08)70606-8.