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Our people are at the heart of our mission to bridge the gap between academic research and industry and deliver positive business outcomes.
From small beginnings in 2009, today we have grown to a team of 130-strong highly-skilled engineers, researchers and business specialists.
Our industry scale machinery and equipment may be world leading but it’s the people who operate it, carry out the research and execute the projects that make the fundamental difference.
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Our AFRC Director Brad Wynne was formerly the Research Director before stepping into the new role this year. Before joining us, Brad spent over 20 years at the University of Sheffield as both a professor and senior lecturer. He has a PhD in Metallurgy from Monash University.
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Alastair Conway has been with the AFRC since its opening in 2009, starting as a research fellow and working his way through various operational and technical roles.
For the past eight years, he has worked on developing the centre's capability in incremental forming technologies such as flow, shear and radial forging.
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Salah, an expert in measurements, modeling, and control of residual stress, joined the University of Strathclyde in 2010. He is a Fellow of The Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3), serving as the technical lead of the AFRC Core Research Programme and chairing the Technical Board. Actively involved in multiple funded projects and PhD initiatives
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David brings strong leadership and management experience and a good technical background in welding and residual stress. He has also worked closely with the forging and incremental team on key projects.
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With a PhD in mechanical engineering, Hosam’s work focuses on cold sheet forming processes for different applications and sectors. Before joining the AFRC, Hosam spent a decade working on industrial-based research projects.
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Dr Ioannis Violatos is a Materials Knowledge Exchange Fellow in the Materials and Residual Stress team at the AFRC. He is the centre's Materials Modelling Technical Theme Lead.
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Diego graduated from the University of Navarra (Spain) in 2008, with a PhD degree in Mechanical Engineering. Joining the AFRC in 2015, he is responsible for all the team's numerical analysis of the forming processes.
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Before joining the AFRC in 2016, Elangovan worked in industry for 11 years in tooling design and development and in automotive R&D as a deputy team leader for process modelling.
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With a degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Glasgow, Michael joined the AFRC in 2014. His main area of expertise is mechanical testing and microstructural analysis.
Kadir is the theme lead for incremental forming at the AFRC.
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Before joining AFRC, Giribaskar worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Indian Institute of Science (IISC). The main focus of his current research is improving the microstructure and mechanical properties of nickel, aluminium and titanium alloys for aerospace, nuclear, defence and automobile applications.
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Laurie graduated from the University of Glasgow in 2012, before completing a knowledge transfer partnership with Mahle Engine Systems on the topic of cold roll bonding where she gained her PhD. Laurie’s research focuses on solid state joining for aerospace, oil and gas, nuclear and automotive applications.
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Aurik is the heating technologies theme lead at the AFRC. Aurik comes from a background of a mixture of industrial and commercial research. His focus is mostly on temperature measurement, heating process control and monitoring (furnaces (gas/electrical), induction heating, etc…) and thermal modelling.
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Paolo is the Forging theme lead at the AFRC.
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Dr. Jianglin Huang leads the Forging and Incremental Process Modelling team at AFRC, bringing over 15 years of expertise in metallic material processes. His group focuses on advancing process modelling capabilities to solve complex manufacturing challenges, particularly in forging and incremental forming. Dr. Huang's work bridges theoretical research with practical industrial applications, promoting "right-first-time" solutions for digital manufacturing. Prior to the AFRC, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford, with a PhD in Metallurgy and Materials from the University of Birmingham.