New Chair and Vice Chair Appointed to SRPe Advanced Manufacturing Thematic Leadership Group

SRPe is delighted to announce that Professor Bill Ion has been appointed as the new Chair of SRPe’s Advanced Manufacturing Thematic Leadership Group (AM-TLG) with Professor Duncan Hand appointed as Vice Chair. The new appointments will be from 1st January 2019.

Professor Bill Ion is Vice Dean of Knowledge Exchange and Deputy Head of Design, Manufacturing & Engineering Management at the University of Strathclyde. Bill’s research expertise is in the design and manufacturing field with a particular focus on forging and forming technologies, additive manufacture, design for manufacture and design processes.  

Professor Duncan Hand is Director of Research and Deputy Head of the School of Engineering & Physical Sciences at Heriot-Watt University. Duncan’s research expertise in manufacturing includes laser precision machining, the use of adaptive optics in laser manufacturing processes and laser micro-joining.

The new appointees succeed Professor Keith Ridgway, Executive Chair of the Advanced Forming Research Centre (AFRC / University of Strathclyde) / Executive Chair of the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC / University of Sheffield) and Dr Caroline Cantley (Executive Director of SRPe) who have Co-Chaired the group since its launch in January 2017.

On announcing the appointments Dr Cantley, Executive Director of SRPe said:

“On behalf of the SRPe Board we are delighted with the new appointments. Bill and Duncan form a strong and dynamic leadership team given their complementary academic research expertise and strategic leadership skills.

Building upon our success to date, 2019 is going to be a very exciting year in advanced manufacturing and I look forward to working with AM-TLG colleagues under our new theme leadership team.”