Alumnus awarded a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship

Dr Sandy Knowles (2007, Materials Science) has been awarded a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship. The fellowship scheme from UK Research & Innovation invests in 90 outstanding individuals across the UK to support the country’s future leaders of innovation.

Sandy is a Lecturer in Nuclear Materials and EUROfusion Researcher Grant holder in the School of Metallurgy & Materials at the University of Birmingham.

He is an experimental metallurgist focussed on the design & development of new alloys for extreme environments, including nuclear fusion, fission and aerospace gas turbines. He is a forerunner in the development of new “bcc superalloys”. Unlike current γ-γ’ nickel superalloys, β-β’ bcc superalloys make use of a bcc tungsten, titanium or steel matrix, with their higher melting points, for increased operating temperatures. This work, as well as his work on commercial alloys and ‘high entropy alloys’ (HEAs), is supported by Culham Centre for Fusion Energy (CCFE), TIMET and Roll-Royce plc.

Many congratulations to Sandy for this achievement.

Click here for more details of the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowships.