Departmental news

Professor Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya, Chairman of WMG, at the University of Warwick, and Hans Fischer, Chief Technical Officer of Tata Steel’s European operation, opened the new Tata Steel UK research centre, on Wednesday 28th of October, on the University of Warwick’s Science Park.

Engineers and researchers will be working on new steel coatings, including graphene, at the company’s new advanced coatings research laboratories. The opening marks the first phase of Tata Steel’s relocation of its UK R&D work to the University of Warwick campus.

Professor Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya said:

“We are delighted to welcome Tata Steel here to the University of Warwick. Advanced steels research is crucial for the nation, and for manufacturing, this move shows Tata Steel’s long term commitment to research and development within the UK.”

The continued success and growth of WMG, at the University of Warwick, now means that it is seeking to hire 120 new recruits over the next 100 days.

WMG is a leading centre for world class education and applied research in many sectors including: automotive, aerospace and defence, business, construction, energy and utilities, IT, security and rail. They have recently won funding for several major research projects and partnerships that builds on our large array of collaborations with new and established partners.

WMG’s Chairman Professor Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya said:

As we continue to grow and expand we are seeking individuals who thrive on a challenge and who aren’t afraid to defy conventional thinking. We are investing in, and creating, several new world-leading facilities to support these new projects. So we also need to invest in more talented people to take these projects forward and we will intend to recruit 120 of those people in the next 100 days.”

Some of the most recent developments, at WMG include a new £13.5 million Energy Innovation Centre and the £150 million National Automotive Innovation Centre.

WMG, at the University of Warwick and Tata Steel are strengthening their collaborative research and education programmes providing a critical mass of research excellence which will position the UK at the forefront of the international iron and steel research agenda.

There is already a strong relationship between the two organisations and the signing of an MOU seeks to promote the collaboration in the fields of science, technology and education.

A new £20m industry and government funded international centre for Advanced Steels Research is to be built at Warwick. This new world class centre will provide a unique national resource, and will complement Tata Steel’s long term investment in its own move to facilities based at the University of Warwick. WMG will be working with Tata Steel through a hub to bring together Tata Steel sponsored activity across UK universities.

The University of Warwick has been awarded £14.5m for WMG to bring together researchers to work with industry in an Advanced Steel Research Centre. WMG at the University of Warwick will work with Tata Steel to take forward this crucial national collaboration which will help transform UK steel production, and includes research into emerging and breakthrough technologies.

The Centre has been constructed and equipped as part of a £14.5m award from EPSRC.

WMG has continued to progress its ambitious expansion plans announcing the appointment of a number of new major academic posts in several key areas.

WMG continues to attract world class Professors with recent appointments in the areas of steels processing, cyber security, advanced propulsion and structural composites. This builds on the nine appointments made last year in the areas of E-Health Innovation, Nanocomposites, Supply Chain and Operations, Automation Systems, Vehicle Electrification and Energy Storage, Low Carbon Materials, Energy for Low Carbon Vehicles and Digital Manufacturing.

WMG, at the University of Warwick, have announced that Professor Claire Davis and Professor Barbara Shollock have been appointed as two new Tata Steel Chairs for research into Thermo-mechanical Processing and Advanced Characterisation and Coatings.

These appointments strengthen the rapidly developing relationship between WMG, the University and Tata Steel. They confirm the strong commitment of Tata Steel to research and manufacturing in the UK.

Building on the initial Tata Steel / Royal Academy of Engineering Chair of Professor Sridhar Seetharaman, the company and the University have been working closely to develop an exciting strategic partnership, with research, research infrastructure, education and exploitation opportunities.

Professor Sridhar Seetharaman has been awarded the best paper award at the IAS (Argentinian Iron and Steel Institute) annual Steel Conference in Argentina. The prestigious conference on Ironmaking, Steelmaking, Rolling and Steel Products is the major steel conference in South America. The conference took place from 5-7 November 2013 at Rozario, Argentina.

Professor Seetharaman is the Tata Steel / Royal Academy of Engineering Professor for Low Carbon Materials Technologies at WMG. He leads WMG's research in Materials Processing, with a focus on Iron and Steel Manufacturing.

Professor Seetharaman's paper was entitled ‘Oxidation and embrittlement in grain boundaries induced by Cu in a low carbon steel with Cr and 0.2% Cu under different thermal and atmospheric conditions’. The paper was produced by Professor Seetharaman along with his PhD student Erica Sampson (Carnegie Mellon University) and J.A. Mendez and C. Cicutti of Tenaris Siderca in Argentina.

19th IAS Steel Conference 2013 website

Professor Sridhar Seetharaman has been selected to become Editor of the US-based journal, Metallurgical and Materials Transactions (MMT).

MMT is produced jointly by two societies, The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society and ASM International. It includes three editions of its journals, Journal A (Physical Metallurgy and Materials Science), Journal B (Process Metallurgy) and the soon-to-be-launched Journal E (Energy Materials). Professor Seetharaman will be serving as Editor of all three editions from July 2013.

Professor Seetharaman holds the Royal Academy of Engineering / Tata Steel Research Chair in Low Carbon Materials Technologies at WMG where he leads research on physico-chemical aspects of iron and steel manufacturing and usage with an emphasis on energy efficiency, low carbon and reduction of emissions.

WMG's Professor Sridhar Seetharaman has been selected as the recipient of the Jerry Silver Award for Best Paper 2013 by the Association for Iron and Steel Technology (AIST) Metallurgy Technology Division. The award is for Professor Seetharaman's work entitled 'Effect of Silicon on Hot Shortness'.

The Jerry Silver Award is presented to the author of a process metallurgy or product applications technical paper judged to be the best of class by the AIST, where one of the authors is a student.

Professor Seetharaman has recently joined WMG as the RAEng / Tata Steel Research Chair in Low Carbon Materials Technologies.

The award will be presented to Professor Seetharaman during the AIST Metallurgy, Processing, Products and Applications Technology Committee Meeting in Canada, later this year.

WMG is very pleased to welcome a number of new academic appointments this month, who will take a leading role in some of our exciting research areas.

Professor Sridhar Seetharaman has joined WMG to take up the Research Chair in Low Carbon Materials Technologies, sponsored by the Royal Academy of Engineering and Tata Steel. Professor Seetharaman joins us from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, where he was the POSCO Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and Co-Director of Center For Iron and Steel Research. Professor Seetharaman will be leading a new programme in the manufacture and application of advanced steels in low carbon technologies and setting up a new team, within WMG's existing Materials and Manufacturing theme, to work with Tata Steel to address the current international priorities of the low carbon agenda.

Professor Tony McNally has joined WMG to lead our developing research in the area of Nanocomposites. Professor McNally joins from Queen's University Belfast, where he was Associate Professor in the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and Director of the Polymer Processing Research Centre. The Nanocomposites team, based in WMG's International Institute for Product and Service Innovation, will span WMG's work in Digital Technologies, Materials and Manufacturing.

Dr Claire Dancer has also joined WMG this week to develop WMG's work in Nanocomposites. Dr Dancer joins from the University of Oxford, where she worked as a researcher in the Department of Materials, specifically looking at Manufacturing Methods for Metamaterials.

We also welcome Dr Kwabena Agyaping-Kodua who is joining WMG from the University of Nottingham where he has been Senior Research Fellow in Digital Manufacturing and Systems Engineering at the Precision Manufacturing Centre. As part of WMG's Digital Lifecycle Management team, Dr Agyapong-Kodua will be continuing to develop research activities in the digital manufacturing and systems engineering field, particularly within the remit of high value manufacturing.