Management Team

Prof Phil Prangnell joined the Manchester Materials Science Centre after completing his PhD in Metal Matrix Composites at Cambridge University. His research activities are focused on studying advanced thermomechanical processing and joining techniques for light alloys (mainly aluminium and titanium). In particular, he is interested in understanding and modelling interactions between phase transformations, deformation microstructures, and industrial processes. He has...

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 is a member of the Light Alloy Processing group with research interests that are focussed on microstructural evolution...

Dr. João Quinta da Fonseca completed his PhD on the the mechanical behaviour of high volume fraction MMCs at the University of Leeds, before moving to the School of Materials at the University of Manchester, where he is currently a Reader in (Mechanical) Metallurgy. He is part of the Metallurgy and Corrosion research group and a...

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,...

I graduated in 2003 from Politecnico di Milano (Italy) and subsequently I obtained a M.Sc. in Materials Science and Engineering from the same university. I joined the Corrosion and Protection Centre as a PhD student in 2006 and completed my PhD on "Graded Anodic Film Morphologies for Corrosion Protection of Aerospace Aluminium Alloys" in 2009. After completion of the PhD,...

Prof Sarah Haigh is a Professor of Materials Characterisation at the University of Manchester, UK. Her research interests centre on improving our understanding of nanomaterials properties using transmission electron microscope (TEM) imaging and analysis techniques. Recent examples of work from her group include imaging of new 2D heterostructure materials (Haigh et al Nature Materials 2012, Withers et al Nature Materials 2015), three...

I am a Royal Society University Research Fellow and lead the Atomistic Simulation of Materials group within the School of Materials at the University of Manchester. We use the tools of atomistic simulation to investigate the behaviour of a variety of materials and material evolution processes. I joined the University of Manchester ...

I am the Airbus sponsored Resarch Fellow in the School of Materials at the University of Manchester. My research activities are focused on understanding and predicting process-microstructure-property relationships of complex engineering alloys through modelling and simulation. I completed my PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the North Carolina State University in 2012. I...

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’s research addresses one of the major challenges facing the transport industry world-wide: developing technological breakthroughs in the manufacturing and design of high-performance lightweight vehicles for a more environmentally-friendly footprint. Nan joined Dyson School of Design Engineering in May 2017. Before joining the School, she studied and worked in the Metal Forming and Materials Modelling Group of...

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.