LIGHTFORM - Key Persons
Aiden Ha PhD - University of Manchester Aiden completed his integrated master's degree in chemistry with a first class honours at the University of Manchester in 2021. He is currently on the Advanced metallic system Centre for doctoral Training and starting a PhD involving digital twin studies of abnormally coarse grain structures in critical titanium forgings for military aircraft applications. Read more about Aiden Ha
Benjamin graduated from the University of Salford in 2017 with a First-Class Degree in Physics and a Master's Degree which focused on computational methods in quantum chemistry problems.
Benjamin has recently joined the Advanced Metallic System Centre for Doctoral Training and is completing a PhD at The University of Manchester which focuses on the application of atomistic modelling techniques to high strength aluminium alloys to improve understanding of macroscopic behaviour from an atomic level. Benjamin simulates nanoscale elements of an alloy's microstructure, producing calculations of chemical and mechanical properties which can often be impractical to measure by experimental means. He is currently using density functional theory to understand how dissolved hydrogen may degrade structural aluminium, particularly the 7xxx series of alloys, making it brittle and unserviceable.
Bernadeta Karnasiewicz PhD - The University of Manchester Bernadeta completed her Master's Degree in Materials Engineering at the University of Rzeszów, Poland, gaining first industrial experiences as an intern in a cast iron foundry and in an aerospace manufacturing company. Bernadeta's thesis was in co-operation with Tata Steel Europe in the Netherlands and carried on research in the field of clogging during... Read more about Bernadeta Karnasiewicz
Cameron completed his integrated master's degree (MPhys) in Theoretical Physics at the University of St Andrews in 2020. He has since joined the Advanced Metallic Systems Centre for Doctoral Training and is now completing a PhD at the University of Manchester. His research is primarily focused on modelling microstructurally short crack propagation in 7xxx series Aluminium alloys. New generation 7xxx series (Al) alloys are commonly used materials in aircraft structural applications due to their high specific strength and low production costs. However, the alloys can exhibit an increased susceptibility to environmentally assisted cracking (EAC).
Dr Adam Plowman has recently completed a PhD at The University of Manchester, using first principles atomistic simulation to study zirconium grain boundaries, with the aim of understanding the pellet-cladding interaction in the fuel rod cladding tubes of light water nuclear reactors. In LightForm, Adam will create a framework to improve modelling capabilities in assessing the formability of light alloys. This will include exploring crystal plasticity methods and phase field modelling and applying them to predict microstructure development during warm forming and forging.
Job Titles:
- Co - Investigator
- Co - Investigator / Research
Alec obtained his PhD in Materials Engineering through the Advanced Metallics CDT at the University of Manchester, where he worked on the design of precipitation hardening, wrought magnesium alloys. His post-doctoral research with the Open Architecture Additive Manufacturing (OAAM) and NEWAM projects has focused primarily on the development of high deposition rate additive manufacturing (AM) processes, and materials characterisation, development, and design of bespoke AM titanium aerospace components. This includes development of alloy-alloy composite parts, where multi-alloy AM technologies are utilised to produce site-specific, tailored mechanical properties for industry applications.
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 development of new corrosion protection systems for high performance aerospace aluminium alloys, as well as research on forming techniques for integration of light weight alloy systems into land transport vehicles. Alex's work in LightForm aims to improve our understanding of the degradation mechanisms in high performance light alloys formed using existing and new processes, and their behaviour in demanding environments.
Job Titles:
- Research Software Engineer - the University of Manchester
Chris studied Physics at The University of Oxford, before completing a PhD in Theoretical and Computational Physics at The University of Manchester. He has worked as a postdoctoral researcher on a range of problems in Statistical Physics and Soft Matter, from using rare event statistics and novel simulation techniques to study the glass transition to developing methods for increasing the yield of self-assembly processes. More recently he worked in Respiratory Physiology, developing models and writing software to extract diagnostic medical information from detailed measurements of the molecules flowing in and out of a patient's mouth. Chris's work in LightForm is to assist with the ongoing development of MatFlow and hpcFlow, helping to bring them to a wider audience within the materials engineering research community.
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 in 2013 as a Dalton Research Fellow and before that spent three years in the Department of Computational Materials Design of the Max Planck Institute for Iron Research (Eisenforschung) (MPIE) in Dusseldorf Germany, latterly as an Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow. He completed his PhD in 2010, in the Department of Physics and Thomas Young Centre, Imperial College London, under the supervision of Adrian Sutton.
Chris's role in LightForm is in leading projects that aim to connect details at the atomistic scale to the macroscale behaviour of materials. This involves investigating the structure, thermodynamics and kinetics of bulk phases, point defects, dislocations and grain boundaries.
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 temperatures in Ti, Al and Mg alloys, including the development and building of bespoke rigs for use with synchrotron diffraction, neutron diffraction and electron microscopy. Christopher's work is intended to broaden knowledge of the dynamic mechanisms, active during forming, that contribute to the microstructural evolution and precipitate formation during forming of advanced light alloys.
Dr Conghui Liu is the research associate jointly appointed by EPSRC Programme grants LightForm and MIDAS. Conghui's research focuses on the microstructure, deformation micromechanics and failure mechanism of hexagonal materials, especially Ti alloys, Mg alloys, Zr alloys and Al alloys. Conghui obtained her PhD from the University of Manchester on the fatigue failure mechanism of a near-alpha Ti...
Job Titles:
- 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 Athena SWAN Silver status. The critical thinking, communications, and collaborative working skills gained throughout this time are applied in bringing a non-specialist perspective to LightForm.
Gideon Obasi (PhD) obtained his doctorate degree from The University of Manchester with thesis on variant selection and its effect on texture in Ti-6Al-4V alloy. He has been involved in projects involving process development, microstructural and mechanical characterisation of different alloys including precipitation hardened (PH) nickel base supperalloys, low alloy steels and Cr coated Zr alloy. A key aspect of his research has been to establish an empirical understanding of the relationship between manufacturing parameters - microstructure evolution - performance and degradation mechanisms (hydrogen embrittlement) in the presence of a hydrogenating environment. In LightForm, Gideon is the research investigator in charge of the characterisation of texture evolution in dual phase titanium alloys subjected to uniaxial compression at different test temperatures and strain rate. This work will provide better understand of texture development under compression, which currently is not well understood. Gideon is also comfortable with applied metallurgy, sample preparation technique and the use of material characterization equipment, such as optical microscopy, SEM, X-ray diffraction technique, EBSD, neutron diffraction, dilatometer and other mechanical testing equipment.
Job Titles:
- Co - Investigator
- Co - Investigator / Research
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.
Dr Shercliff's research interests include:
Modelling of thermo-mechanical and joining processes in engineering alloys
Solid bonding of aluminium scrap
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 work in LightForm focuses on optimizing and modelling the age hardening response in the HFQ process. This includes an examination of the age hardening properties and considering the effects of prior dislocations. Jinghua will also develop a phenomena-based model to capture the basic ageing mechanisms (i.e. nucleation, growth, coarsening, dissolution of the precipitates) and the interactive relations between ageing and dislocation evolution. Crucially this model is expected to be implemented into FE simulations of the HFQ process modelling.
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,...
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 angle X-ray scattering will be involved as well. This work aims at improving the understanding of dynamic precipitation and will eventually be used to help develop process routes and compositions to improve aluminium alloy formability and enable increased tolerance to recycled content.
Dr Matthew Curd obtained his PhD in materials science from the University of Manchester in 2019 with a thesis on subsurface crack networks in bearing steels. He previously obtained an MPhys in 2015, also from UoM. Since concluding his PhD, Matthew has worked on post-doctoral research projects on various materials including battery electrodes, syntactic foam composites and now 7xxx series Aluminium alloys with LightForm. Matthew's technical experience includes X-Ray CT, SEM, and FIB (including Plasma and Laser FIBs), and he has a particular interest in 3D serial sectioning experiments (3D-EBSD). In LightForm, his work is focussed on better understanding the influence of microstructure on environmentally assisted cracking (EAC) in 7xxx series aluminium. This will include 4-point bend failure tests with high-resolution post-mortem characterisation of crack initiation sites, in both 2D and 3D.
Job Titles:
- Senior Lecturer
- Co - Investigator
- Co - Investigator / Research
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...
Dr Mirtunjay Kumar PDRA - University of Manchester Mirtunjay obtained his PhD from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, India. His thesis title was "Experimental and Crystal Plasticity Simulation Study on the Deformation Behavior of Liquid Phase Sintered Tungsten Heavy Alloys". Read more about Dr Mirtunjay Kumar
Job Titles:
- Lecturer
- Co - Investigator / Research
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...
Job Titles:
- 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, moving then to the University of Sheffield where he led the Insigneo Institute Computer Science engineering team. As a Research Software Engineer at The University of Manchester, Nicholas's work involves collaborating with researchers in various fields, such as Humanities, Computer Science and Materials Engineering, supporting their research by managing their software development and/or optimization as well as data management. Nicolas's work in LightForm will be to create a multiplatform data infrastructure to which LightForm data can be uploaded, shared and managed.
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 . Paloma's work in LighForm will extend and optimise the Hot Form Quench (HQF) process in Al alloys, involving a systematic analysis of the effect of different processing parameters on the resulting microstructures and performing detailed characterization of the latter, by a combination of complementary techniques including scanning and transmission electron microscopy.
Job Titles:
- PDRA - the University of Cambridge
Dr Patryk Jedrasiak completed an MPhil in Engineering and a PhD in numerical modelling of friction welding at the University of Cambridge, where he is now a Research Associate. Patryk's research experience includes a fellowship at Harvard University, focusing on a novel Eulerian numerical method for simulating elastoplastic solids, 3 years part-time at the industrial sponsor of his PhD,...
Job Titles:
- Advanced Forming Research Centre - the University of Strathclyde
Job Titles:
- Research Software Engineer
- Research Software Engineer / Research
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 Research IT group, which involves a variety of software engineering projects across the campus and teaching programming courses. Peter's work in LightForm assists the project in developing sustainable software, focussing on the development of protocols for the collection, storage and publication of data.
Job Titles:
- Airbus Research Fellow
- 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...
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 texture and microstructure evolution during incremental sheet metal forming of light weight alloys.
In LightForm, Sumeet is involved in understanding the deformation response in the two phase regime of Ti-6Al-4V alloy by carrying compression tests at different temperature under constant true strain rate to simulate experimental processing conditions.
Dr Thomas Jailin completed his PhD at the National Institute of Applied Sciences (INSA) in Lyon (France), during which he studied the thermo-mechanical behaviour of Zircaloy-4 fuel claddings in simulated accidental situations. In LightForm, Thomas is working on the forming simulations of light alloys. This includes the development of constitutive laws linking the microstructure properties to the macroscopic mechanical...
We look forward to updating this information shortly.
Job Titles:
- Associate PDRA - the University of Manchester
Michael completed his PhD with the Advanced Metallic Systems CDT at the University of Manchester. In his project he used both experimental and modelling techniques, including sub-micron resolution digital image correlation and full-field crystal plasticity to study material deformation during load reversal in aero-engine alloys. Michael currently works closely with the LightForm team as part of the EPSRC project ...
Dr. Y. Xiong obtained his PhD from Tohoku University, Japan with a thesis on the corrosion fatigue behaviours of austenitic stainless steels in nuclear environments. His research interests include the corrosion and cracking behaviours of structural materials. He is currently working at LightForm at the University of Manchester as a PDRA, with a project focussing on corrosion and stress corrosion...
Elliot has completed an MEng in Material Science and Engineering at the University of Sheffield, where his focus was additive layer manufacturing of high strength 7000 series aluminium alloys, concentrating on the microstructural effect of grain refiners. He then joined the Advanced Metallic System Centre for Doctoral Training and is now working on a PhD at The University of Manchester which...
Famin Tian PhD - Imperial College London Famin completed a BEng in Mechanical Design, Manufacturing and Automation at Dalian University of Technology (China), obtaining an MSc in Advanced Mechanical Engineering from University of Sheffield. Currently at Imperial College London, Famin is completing a PhD at the Dyson School of Design Engineering. His research project focuses on developing a novel, cost-effective Heat Stamping (HS) process for forming complex-shaped... Read more about Famin Tian
Fan completed a Master's Degree in Materials Science and Engineering at Chongqing University (China) focusing on the study of ZM6 (also known as Mg-Zn-Nd-Zr) magnesium alloys. Joining The University of Manchester in 2019 to commence a PhD, Fan's current research is concerned with the microstructure evolution and mechanical property of AZ31 and ZEK100 wrought magnesium alloys, this...
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 in the automotive sector, maintaining an acceptable balance of target properties.
Job Titles:
- Project and Communications Manager
Gergana recently completed her Masters in Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Manchester. Her thesis was focused on optimization and property comparison of two novel nerve conduit polymer materials, one of which in development for 3D printing to repair large nerve gaps. She is also a part of the university's start-up ecosystem with award winning NanoGraft and was a Peer Assisted Study Session Leader during her undergrad studies. She has experience collaborating with people from different industries, and managing projects with multiple stakeholders. The problem solving skills and varied audience communication experience will bring fresh management perspective to LightForm.
Guy completed his integrated master's degree in Physics with first class honours at the University of Salford in 2019. He has since joined the Advanced Metallic System Centre for Doctoral Training and is now completing a PhD at the University of Manchester involving modelling the microstructure evolution during hot working of titanium alloys. This project includes both crystal plasticity modelling and phase field modelling to determine the mechanisms that cause changes in microstructure and crystallographic texture to occur within titanium - 6% aluminium - 4% vanadium alloy in the mixed-phase region during hot deformation.
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 thermo-mechanical processing and how these combined effects influence the final mechanical properties of Al-Mg-Si alloy. This work will include understanding the interaction between dislocations and precipitation, and microstructure evolution during processing.
Inigo joined LightForm in 2019 as a PhD student at the University of Cambridge part-funded by Norsk Hydro. His project focuses on modelling the processability of 6XXX series recycled aluminium alloys. This is split into two subprojects, the first looking at the modelling of hot-compression experiments and the second looking into modelling the effects of particles on formability using crystal plasticity....
James completed an MEng in Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Manchester in 2017. His Bachelors project considered the corrosion of aluminium and the effects of replacing hexavalent chromium as a corrosion inhibitor. His Masters project investigated optimisation of processing parameters for additive manufactured titanium and aluminium using computed tomography to measure defects within the materials. Now he is...
Jiaxin Lv PhD - Imperial College London Jiaxin completed a BSc and MSc from Tongji University (China) in 2016 and 2019 respectively. Jiaxin is currently completing a PhD at Imperial College London, funded by the President's PhD Scholarship. Jiaxin's research focus is to investigate a novel extrusion method to produce wide aluminium profile with much lower applied force, at the same time, strengthening the original... Read more about Jiaxin Lv
Jiaxuan completed a BSc in Material Science and Engineering at Xiangtan University (China), focusing on enhancing β Titanium alloys as biomedical materials. She then completed an MSc with Distinction in Advanced Engineering Materials at The University of Manchester, continuing study strengthening Mg-Al alloys as a PhD in 2019. Her current project focuses on the influence of rolling on...
Juhi completed a B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering at United College of Engineering and Research (India), followed by an M.Tech in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Jodhpur (India). She has recently joined the dual degree PhD program as part of the Indian Institute of Technology, ...
Kai is currently completing a PhD at Imperial College London, funded by the President's PhD Scholarship of Imperial College London. Kai's research focus is investigating a novel and cost-effective method to manufacture magnesium alloy sheets.
Kevin completed his MEng in Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Manchester in 2017, his thesis focussed on the discovery of novel and superior corrosion inhibitors for the replacement of the current aerospace industry standard, strontium chromate. Kevin attained industrial experience during his degree at GKN Aerospace in Sweden, working on thermal sprayed coatings for aeronautical and space engine...
Laura has recently joined LightForm where she is pursuing a PhD at the University of Manchester in crystal plasticity and microstructure modelling for rolled aluminium sheet. In the past, Laura studied Chemical Engineering at the University of Cantabria (Spain). She completed an MSc in New Materials under a program between the University of Cantabria and the University of the...
Job Titles:
- Research Project Administrator
Meg Greenough started working at the University of Manchester in September 2022, joining the LightForm team as Research Project Administrator. Meg helps to facilitate the smooth running of day-to-day LightForm activities, including meeting and event organisation, purchasing, and assisting with theoutreach efforts.
Meg is also Research Project Administrator for the MIDAS programme grant.
Before working at LightForm, Meg completed an MA in Medieval Studies at the University of York and brings non-technical perspectives to LightForm.
Michael White PhD - The University of Manchester Mike completed a BSc in Mathematics, followed by an MSc in Applied Mathematics, both at the University of Manchester. He has since joined the Advanced Metallic Systems CDT, where he aims to develop a microstructural "fingerprint" for titanium alloys. This will essentially define a compressed representation of microstructure, which allows for meaningful comparisons between micrographs to be made,... Read more about Michael White
Muzamul Nawaz PhD - The University of Manchester Muzamul studied at The University of Manchester and obtained a BSc in Materials Science and Engineering in 2018. He has currently joined the Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) in Materials for Demanding Environments (M4DE). The core of his PhD in LightForm will focus on the influence of process variables upon microstructure and texture of dual phase zirconium alloys. Read more about Muzamul Nawaz
Natalie Shannon (LightForm Project Manager), was 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. Natalie has considerable experience in project, operations management and strategic planning, with expertise in the execution of multiple, target-driven contracts, including programmes for Department of Education and Training and Development Agency.
Niall obtained a First-Class Honours MPhys and BSc from the University of Leeds. Niall's MPhys project focused on the kinetics of an antiferromagnetic to ferromagnetic transition in Iron Rhodium. Niall's has recently joined the Advanced Metallic System Centre for Doctoral Training and is completing a PhD at The University of Manchester which focuses on 5XXX series Aluminium alloy...
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...
Patrick completed a BEng in mechanical engineering at the university of Manchester in 2020. He then joined LightForm a few months later, working with the Advanced Metallic Systems centre for doctoral training, where he studied the metallurgy necessary for his PhD. His PhD project now looks at how cracks form in unusual titanium microstructures, such as ‘abnormally...
Job Titles:
- Co - Investigator
- Co - Investigator / Research
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 creep and cyclic-plasticity damage constitutive equations. These equations were implemented in FE solvers to predict the damage and failure of engineering materials, such as copper, Al-alloys and nickel-based super-alloys, under different working conditions.
At the University of Birmingham, He worked on the development of unified viscoplastic constitutive equations to model micro-structure and damage evolution in hot/warm metal forming processes. Some examples include: (i) phase transformation in hot-stamping with cold-die quenching, (ii) grain growth in superplastic forming, (iii) age precipitation hardening in creep-age-forming, (iv) recrystallisation, grain size and damage evolution in hot rolling, etc.. He is one of the originators for the development of Evolutionary Algorithms (EA)-based optimization techniques for the determination of physically-based unified constitutive equations from experimental data.
He has also developed an integrated facility for micro-mechanics modelling. Particular applications include the forming of micro components, such as extrusion of micro pins, hydroforming of micro-tubes, etc.
Job Titles:
- Co - Investigator
- Co - Investigator / Research
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 on modelling.
Job Titles:
- Principal Investigator
- Principal Investigator / Research
Prof. 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 computational efficient modelling.
Job Titles:
- Co - Investigator
- Co - Investigator / Research
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...
Job Titles:
- Professor of Materials Characterisation
- Research Profile
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 completed her MEng and PhD degrees in Material Science at the University of Oxford, after which she worked for JEOL UK as a consultant applications specialist.
Sarah's current research focusses on solving materials problems by developing advanced electron microscopy techniques. She has a particular interest in in-situ methodologies where materials and processes are studied under more realistic environmental conditions (in liquids or gases, when subjected to heating cooling, biasing or mechanical stress). In LightForm Sarah's role is to apply these cutting edge electron microscopy techniques to aid the development of light weight alloys for a range of applications.
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,...
Ruiqiang Zhang PDRA - Imperial College London Ruiqiang completed a BSc and MSc from Central South University (China) in 2014 and 2017 respectively. Ruiqiang is now completing a PhD where his research is based within the group of Metal Forming and Material Modelling in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Imperial College London. His research focus is the formability assessment for metallic sheet materials, including boron steel and aluminium alloys,... Read more about Ruiqiang Zhang
Ryan completed a Master's Degree at the University of Sheffield. Ryan has recently joined the Advanced Metallic System Centre for Doctoral Training and is completing a PhD at The University of Manchester focusing on the environmentally assisted cracking of new 7xxx series aluminium alloys.
Samuel graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 2021 with a BSc in Physics with first class honours. He has recently joined the Advanced Metallic System Centre for Doctoral Training and is now completing a PhD at the University of Manchester focusing on the development of microstructural simulation tools for fusion materials.
Si n studied materials and manufacturing engineering at Sheffield Hallam University and is now undertaking a PhD as part of the Advanced Metallic Systems CDT. Her project focuses on novel magnesium alloys, controlling the microstructure and researching the effects on mechanical and corrosion performance.
Wayne completed a BSc in Physical Science at the Open University followed by an MSc in Materials Physics at The University of Salford. Wayne has recently joined the Advanced Metallic System Centre for Doctoral Training and is completing a PhD at The University of Manchester which focuses on the effect of microstructure on the ductility of aerospace titanium alloys. This...
Xi Wang started his PhD study in Imperial College in 2019, in division of mechanics of materials under department of mechanical engineering. His research focuses on the application of aluminium alloys in creep-age forming (CAF), including investigations of the material evolvements in CAF, constitutive modelling of material's creep-ageing behaviour, integral creep-age forming of aluminium panels and its numerical simulation...
Job Titles:
- PDRA - the University of Manchester
Xiaohan studied Material Processing and Controlling Engineering at Southwest Jiaotong University (China), focusing on magnesium alloy and obtaining the degree of Bachelor of Engineering. She has completed a MSc in Advanced Engineering Material at The University of Manchester, where her focus was the stability of austenite in bearing steel. Xiaohan has recently joined the LightForm for a PhD at The...
Yangchao Deng PhD - University of Manchester Yangchao completed his Masters degree in Materials Science at Central South University (China), focusing on the deformation and solidification mechanisms of magnesium alloy. Yangchao has recently joined the LightForm for a PhD at The University of Manchester. His current project focuses on the microstructure and local damage evolution of deformed recycled Al alloys, supported by advanced characterisation techniques, including ... Read more about Yangchao Deng
Yichao Yao PhD - The University of Manchester Yichao completed an MSc with Distinction in Advanced Engineering Materials at The University of Manchester and was awarded a Bachelor Degree in Materials Forming and Control Engineering from the Hefei University of Technology (China). Yichao has recently joined the Advanced Metallic System Centre for Doctoral Training and is completing a PhD at The University of Manchester which focuses on chemo-mechanical... Read more about Yichao Yao
Yizhuo Ding PhD - The University of Manchester Yizhuo Ding obtained his BSc degree in Materials science and engineering at the University of Manchester. Yizhuo is currently doing his PhD in characterisation of WAAM produced 2xxx aluminium-lithium alloys using NanoSIMS and EPMA at the University of Manchester. Read more about Yizhuo Ding
Yuchen Zheng has recently completed a MSc in Advanced Engineering Material at The University of Manchester, studied about the suitability of using different empirical potentials for grain boundary energy simulation in aluminium. Yuchen is currently studying for his doctorate at LightForm, The University of Manchester, focusing on Modelling warm deformation and recrystallization in (HCP) metals.
Zhenjie Cao PhD - The University of Manchester Zhenjie completed an MSc with Distinction in Advanced Engineering Materials at The University of Manchester and was awarded Bachelor Degree in Physics from both Jilin University (China) and Tomsk Polytechnic University (Russia). Zhenjie has recently joined the Advanced Metallic System Centre for Doctoral Training and is completing a PhD at The University of Manchester which focuses on the effects of... Read more about Zhenjie Cao
Ziyu Ma PhD - The University of Manchester Ziyu recently completed a Bachelor Degree in Material Science & Engineering from The University of Manchester and a Bachelor Degree in Polymer Science & Engineering from Central South University (China). Ziyu has recently joined the Advanced Metallic System Centre for Doctoral Training. His PhD focuses on strain path effects during dynamic precipitation in aluminium alloys. Read more about Ziyu Ma