Information

Membership Number: FCA2305

Membership Type: Full Fellowship

Division: Engineering and Applied Sciences

Corresponding Email: p.j.withers@manchester.ac.uk

Homepage(s): https://research.manchester.ac.uk/en/persons/p.j.withers 

Present and Previous Positions

Regius Professor of Materials, University of Manchester, UK

Director of the National Research Facility for Lab. CT

Professor Philip Withers obtained his PhD in Metallurgy at Cambridge University and took up a lectureship there, before taking up a Chair in Manchester in 1998. 

Fields of Scholarship and Research Interests

Nanotomography 

Metal matrix composites (Ti-SiC fibre and Al particulate) 

Laser peening and other life extending surface treatment technologies

Linear, rotational and stir friction welding of Al, Ni and Ti materials and components 

Crack tip field displacement mapping and crack tip residual stress interactions 

Weld residual stresses, their modelling and mitigation 

Structural integrity of aerospace and nuclear plant 

New residual stress measurement technologies 

Stress related transformations including ferro electric and shape memory transitions 

Powder processing

His interests lie in applying advanced techniques to follow the behaviour of engineering and natural materials in real time and in 3D, often as they operate under demanding conditions.  In 2005 he was elected to the Royal Academy of Engineering and in 2008 set up the Henry Moseley X-ray Imaging Facility, which is now one of the most extensive suites of 3D X-ray Imaging facilities in the world.

In establishing correlative tomography, he is currently linking together X-ray and electron imaging to locate and track a 3D region of interest from metre to the nanometres length-scale. In 2017 he Chaired the UK Neutron Strategic Review for the Research Councils.

Honors, Awards and Other Membership

Fellow of Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng) 

Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) 

Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (FIMMM)

Foreign Member of Chinese Academy of Engineering

Awarded the Royal Society Armourers & Brasiers’ Company Prize for pioneering use of neutron and X-ray beams to map stresses and image components in 2010, his work underpins the scientific basis by which we can predict component failure.  In 2012, Philip became the inaugural Director of the BP International Centre for Advanced Materials aimed understanding and developing materials across the energy sector. In 2014, the University of Manchester was awarded the Queen’s Anniversary Prize, recognising the Manchester X-ray Imaging Facility’s work. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2016. In 2017 he became the inaugural Regius Professor of Materials and Chief Scientist of the newly founded Henry Royce Institute for Advanced Materials.

Selected Publications

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=k2Jw8scAAAAJ&hl=en 

Other Information

https://phillipwithers.com/