Alumni
LightForm Group Alumni
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Dr Alex Cassell
PDRA
Dr Alex Cassell has worked on several research programmes since completion of a PhD on the environmentally assisted degradation mechanisms in light alloys. Working in the Corrosion and Protection Centre he has expertise on the multi-scale characterisation of high performance aluminium alloys. His research has included the study of hydrogen embrittlement (HE) and stress corrosion mechanisms in light alloys, the...
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Dr Jinghua Zheng
PDRA
Dr Jinghua Zheng completed a PhD in Mechanical Engineering at Imperial College London, during which she developed a constrained ageing technique for residual stress reduction in aluminium aircraft components. She also established and validated physically-based constitutive equations and for FE models of residual stress and yield strength distributions in components. Based at Imperial College London, Jinghua’s...
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Natalie Shannon
Project Manager
Natalie Shannon (LightForm Project Manager) has joined LightForm as Project Manager, previously the Project Manager for The University of Manchester - Study China programme, a UK government funded programme and the largest China outbound mobility programme delivered in the UK.
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Dr Nicholas Gruel
Research Software Engineer
Dr Nicolas Gruel completed a PhD in astrophysics and a Post-Doc in software development for data acquisition, analysis and simulation of astronomical images. As the lead developer for the Centro de Estudios de Física del Cosmos de Aragón, Nicolas was accountable for creating the data pipeline to analyse 1.4 TB of data per day,...
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Dr Paloma Hidalgo-Manrique
PDRA
Dr Paloma Hidalgo-Manrique completed a PhD at the Complutense University of Madrid, focusing on the processing of fine-grained microstructures by accumulative roll bonding, and how it can be used to produce material that can be superplastically formed more easily. Since then she has worked on the fundamental deformation mechanisms in Mg alloys as part of LATEST2 and project MAGMAN ....
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Dr Peter Crowther
Research Software Engineer
Peter Crowther did a PhD in Physics at the University of Bristol, working on the study of the structure of glassy materials. This involved both experimental microscopy and molecular simulation work and the development of new algorithms for processing and analysing the data. Peter now works as a Research Software Engineer at The University of Manchester in the...
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Dr Sumeet Mishra
PDRA
Dr Sumeet Mishra recently completed his PhD from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur with a thesis on experimental and theoretical investigations of the effect of precipitates on mechanical behaviour and deformation texture of an aluminium-magnesium-silicon alloy. Prior to joining The University of Manchester, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Indian Institute of Science Bangalore where his research work involved understanding...
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Dr Pratheek Shanthraj
Airbus Research Fellow
Dr. Pratheek Shanthraj completed his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the North Carolina State University in 2012. He has since worked at the Max Planck Institute for Iron Research, Düsseldorf, and the RWTH University, Aachen, leading a research group on the microstructural modelling of materials, before moving to The University of Manchester in 2018 as an Airbus sponsored Research Fellow...
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Nicholas Byres
PhD - The University of Manchester
Nicholas joined The University of Manchester in 2013 to study an integrated Masters with industrial experience in Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering. In 2017, Nicholas obtained a Master’s Diploma with First-Class Honours with a year’s industrial experience, obtained whilst working for a stem cell research facility in Santiago, Chile. Currently completing a PhD with The University of Manchester, Nicholas...
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Dr Madeleine Bignon
PDRA - The University of Manchester
Madeleine completed her PhD at the University of Nantes (France) and Lancaster University (UK) with a thesis on martensitic transformation in titanium alloys. In LightForm, she is studying the interactions between deformation and precipitation in age-hardened aluminium alloys. Her work primarily focuses on developing models coupling precipitation kinetics and plasticity, and advanced experimental techniques such as electron microscopy and small...
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Dr Christopher Stuart Daniel
PDRA - The University of Manchester
Dr Christopher Stuart Daniel recently obtained his EngD from the University of Manchester with a thesis on the development of crystallographic orientations (textures) during hot-rolling of dual-phase zirconium alloys. In LightForm, Christopher leads the in-situ characterisation of light alloys and is working to develop in-situ characterisation capabilities for studying the micro-mechanics of deformation at elevated and hot and warm forming...
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Hanwen Fu
PhD - The University of Manchester
Hanwen completed an MSc in Advanced Engineering Materials at The University of Manchester, continuing on to start a PhD in 2018. Her current research concerns novel hybrid thermo-mechanical processing in a Al-Mg-Si alloy, which can enhance yield strength dramatically while retaining moderate ductility. The project will focus on understanding the strengthening mechanisms, for example, strain hardening and precipitation strengthening, during hybrid...
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Dr Doyin Mansell
Project and Communications Manager
Dr Doyin Mansell recently completed her PhD in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Bath, during which she developed methods of quantifying changes to left ventricular function following myocardial infarction in collaboration with cardiovascular surgeons from the University of Bristol. Alongside her research, she regularly led under-18s outreach activities, organised seminars, and aided in the successful departmental application for...
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Dr Victoria Yardely
PDRA - Imperial College London
We look forward to updating this information shortly.
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Francesco Guarracino
PhD - The University of Manchester
Francesco completed an MEng in Chemical Engineering at the University of Naples Federico II (Italy) in 2018, his thesis concentrated on modelling and production of graded polymeric foams. Francesco has recently joined the Advanced Metallic System Centre for Doctoral Training and is studying for a PhD at The University of Manchester focusing on increasing the corrosion resistance of 7xxx Al panels...
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Dr Michele Curioni
Co-Investigator
Dr Michele Curioni is a Senior Lecturer in Corrosion Protection at the School of Materials, University of Manchester. His research focuses on two main aspects related to materials durability, i.e. surface engineering and corrosion testing. Michele has extensive experience in the surface treatment of light alloys, including anodizing, conversion coatings and paints, also research on the use...