Departmental news

WMG have today, Monday 12th of November 2012, announced that Professor Sridhar Seetharaman has been appointed to the Tata Steel and Royal Academy of Engineering joint Chair for research into Low Carbon Materials Technology.

Professor Seetharaman is currently the POSCO Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, and Co-Director of Center For Iron and Steel Research, at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. He gained his undergraduate degree from the Royal Institute of Technology (Stockholm, Sweden) and his PhD from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He also spent a year as a research associate at Imperial College in London. He is currently the principal editor of AIST (Association for Iron and Steel Technology Transactions) and he is on the International advisory board of Steel Research International and ISIJ (Iron and Steel Institute of Japan).

A £92 million National Automotive Innovation Campus (NAIC) is to be established at the University of Warwick. NAIC will be part-funded through the Government's UK Research Partnership Investment Fund (UKRPIF), which is administered by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and which supports university capital research projects. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Rt Hon George Osborne MP, has announced today, Monday 8th October, a further £200 million of public investment in the fund.

George Osborne said: "Today we deliver with some of our leading businesses and universities £1 billion of new science investment in the areas where we lead the world."

David Willetts, Minister for Universities and Science, said: “The UK has world-class companies and great universities. This new investment will get them working together to deliver innovation and growth."

WMG is looking to make a number of key academic appointments across its full range of research activities in Digital Technologies, Materials and Manufacturing and Operations and Business Management, in order to enhance and expand its capabilities in these developing areas.

The new posts cover a range of research, teaching and knowledge transfer activities, working with partners in diverse business sectors such as automotive, aerospace and defence, digital, healthcare, finance, energy and pharmaceuticals.

The Group are currently looking for world class individuals who want to make a real impact in their field. The following roles are available:

• Jaguar Land Rover Chair in Simulation of Complex Hybrid and Electric Powertrain Systems 
• Royal Academy of Engineering / TATA Steel Research Chair in Low Carbon Materials Technologies
• Professor of Innovative Manufacturing
• Professor of Cyber Security
• Associate Professor in Service Systems
• Associate / Assistant Professor in Tropical Diagnostics (in collaboration with the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine)

Other key academic positions in Cyber Security, Digital Product Lifecycle Management, Hybrid and Electric Vehicles and Nanocomposites will also be announced shortly.

Tata Steel’s Dr Debashish Bhattacharjee is to give a free open seminar to Midlands businesses and researchers outlining his vision for steel’s high tech future at a keynote seminar on Thursday 13^th October at WMG, University of Warwick.

Dr Bhattacharjee is Group Director, Research Development and Technology, Tata Steel Group and an Industrial Professor at the University of Warwick. Tata Steel is the world’s second most geographically diversified steel producer.