Management Team

Phil Prangnell has a long history of promoting the efficient application of light alloys in the Transport Sector, through more intelligent metallurgical engineering of semi-finished products. He was recently appointed to an Airbus – RAEng research chair in Metallurgical Excellence. His interests in LightForm include: Microstructure and texture engineering during forming operations Novel forming processes for aerospace components Lower cost...

  Prof Joseph Robson graduated in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge in 1993, and obtained his PhD from the same institution in 1996. Since then he has worked at Cambridge, Swansea, and Manchester universities, and in 2003 was appointed to a Lectureship. Joe’s research interests focus on microstructural evolution and control in industrial alloys, with an emphasis...

Dr. João Quinta da Fonseca is a Reader at the University of Manchester. His research is on the plastic deformation of metals and the associated microstructural changes, using advanced characterisation including in- situ imaging and diffraction, and computational modelling. His work in LightForm spans all light alloys, with a focus on titanium alloys. He leads challenge theme 2 on...

Prof Xiaorong Zhou graduated from the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering of Hunan University, China in 1983. He obtained a MSc in materials science and engineering at Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, China in 1986. He was then appointed research engineer in Beijing Institute of Aeronautical Materials. He received his PhD in corrosion science and engineering from UMIST in 1994. Subsequently,...

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...

Prof Sarah Haigh is Professor of Materials Characterisation in the School of Materials at The University of Manchester. Sarah is the Director of Manchester’s Electron Microscopy Centre (EMC), the largest such facility in the UK which includes 5 transmission electron microscopes (TEM), 14 scanning electron microscopes (SEM) and 5 focussed ion beam SEMs. Prior to coming to Manchester, Sarah...

Chris is a Royal Society University Research Fellow and leads the Atomistic Simulation of Materials group within the School of Materials at the University of Manchester. His group uses the tools of atomistic simulation to investigate the behaviour of a variety of materials and material evolution processes. Chris joined the University of Manchester...

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...

Prof Lin's research experience is in Materials and process modelling, Solid/Computational mechanics, which includes micro-mechanics modelling, and its application in creep-damage, cyclic-plasticity-damage, viscoplasticity and advanced metal forming technologies. At the University of Sheffield and UMIST, He worked on the development of unified creep-damage, viscoplasticity-damage, coupled...

Dr Nan Li is a Lecturer at the Dyson School of Design Engineering, Imperial College London. Her research addresses one of the major challenges facing the transportation industry world-wide: the development of breakthrough technologies to manufacture and design high-performance lightweight vehicles for a more environmentally-friendly footprint. Before joining Dyson School in 2017, Dr Nan Li was a researcher in the Metal...

Dr Jiang focuses on developing novel manufacturing techniques through the understanding of micro-thermomechanical behaviours for lightweight alloys and solar cells including Ti, Mg, TiAl, Si. He received his DPhil (Oxford 2013) and followed by two-year post-doc and one-year research fellow at Imperial College studying the microstructural behaviour of engineering alloys. Although at an early stage of his academic career,...

Dr Hugh Shercliff graduated in Engineering at Cambridge University, followed by his PhD under the supervision of Prof. Mike Ashby.  He joined the teaching staff of the Engineering Department in 1994, and is a Senior Lecturer in the Materials, Mechanics and Design Division. He is an Official Fellow, College Lecturer and Director of Studies in Engineering at Girton College. ...

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.