WTD: Tyre designer

I'm writting a 5000 word essay entitled "What factors effect mountain bike tyre design" for an A level project and am finding it hard to find anything directly relevant. At the moment I'm trying to find out about the intricacies of difference tyre casings and the hysterisis of the rubbers used for treads.
So, what I'm asking is, are there any off-road tyre designers on the forums that would willing to help?
Any help will be much appreciated!
So, what I'm asking is, are there any off-road tyre designers on the forums that would willing to help?
Any help will be much appreciated!
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+ some other bikes.
Giant Trance X2
Genesis High Latitude 2x10
Planet X n2a
Genesis Core 20
Giant Trance X2
Genesis High Latitude 2x10
Planet X n2a
Genesis Core 20
Yeah it's not on the interwebz but it is in December's Dirt, stuff about Schwalbe tyres and tyre stuff that might be useful, still not a massive amount of information though.
Winter
Racey
Special Favourite
If in doubt, blame Wiggle.
Should probably be affect instead of effect, unless you say "What factors have an effect on mountain bike tyre design"...
Winter
Racey
Special Favourite
If in doubt, blame Wiggle.
I thought that, was going to post and then thought "nah, the op surely isn't doing that as a subject for English so I'll let them off!"
Road - Wilier Izoard Centaur/Cube Agree C62 Disc
Allround - Cotic Solaris
Thanks everyone else, the Sheldonbrown stuff is great. Like people said the manufacturers stuff is fairly limited, probably to protect commercial secrets. Having said that the Schwalbe technical info is pretty useful.
If anyone is a materials engineer, that would be really useful as-well!
Don't be afraid to stick a few relevant search terms into the 'Scholar' section on google too (it's a little buried, but it's a killer search function).
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed herein are worth exactly what you paid for them.
If you can remember the names of any books that would be great as I've already tried google scholar, Jstor, etc.
*edit*: OOOoo I haven't actually sent them an e-mail before, even better!
using google scholar..