Professor Philip Withers FRS, FRENG
Chief Scientist
Philip is recognised as the world-leading authority on residual stress and its effects on a range of materials. He has developed advanced methods to measure damage non-invasively using both indirect methods and led the establishment of the Henry Moseley X-ray Imaging Facility capable of 3D non-destructive imaging over a range of scales.
Most recently he has started to bring together X-ray imaging and electron imaging within a spatially correlated workflow, coining the phrase ‘Correlated Tomography’. His vision is a fully integrated suite of instruments capable of identifying and tracking a volume of interest, such as a region of sub-surface pitting corrosion in a pipeline steel, to be identified and followed over time by x-ray CT from the mm scale down to the micron scale.
He has also been responsible for the application and development of a number of completely new instruments, including a 50Hz airport security CT system for dynamic materials science experiment, the first laboratory-based X-ray DCT system for 3D crystallographic mapping in the lab, and the first dual plasma electron beam instrument
The importance of this body of work to society as a whole has been recognised by his election to the Royal Academy of Engineering. He has published over 250 journal papers and makes over 30 public lectures each year.
Besides elegant engineering science, he is heavily committed to knowledge transfer, having set up a small business unit (employing 3 staff) to apply the techniques developed in the lab into Industry (it is the only UKAS accredited X-ray measurement unit in the UK). In addition, his Public Engagement activities on 3D imaging have seen him exhibit at Buckingham Palace and the Royal Society, win the Royal Academy of Engineering/Nexia Solutions Education Innovation Award and this year set up a spin-out taking his research on materials into Schools and Borough Councils.
