The Henry Royce Institute (Royce), the UK’s national institute for advanced materials research and innovation has appointed Professor Tony Horner as Chief Technology Officer (CTO).
Tony is a member of the Royce Leadership Team with responsibility for determining and delivering the Institute’s strategic vision for its Technology Platform capabilities. He will lead on the development of Royce’s research technology platform strategy, building on the institute’s world-leading facilities and people distributed across Royce Partners.
Tony, who is also a Professor of Practice in Materials Science at the University of Manchester, started his career in 1990 at Rolls-Royce Submarines in the defence nuclear sector, where he developed an interest in materials science and engineering, particularly in environmental degradation and integrity of structural alloys. He’s held technical and managerial roles at Serco (now Jacobs), in addition to numerous technical leadership roles across Rolls-Royce within the defence, nuclear and aerospace sectors.
Tony obtained his PhD at The University of Birmingham in 2008 through studying the transition from localised corrosion to environmentally assisted cracking in steam turbine disc steels for the power generation industry as part of an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)/Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) industry funded programme in conjunction with The National Physical Laboratory (NPL).
He previously Chaired a sub-committee on Engine Impacts and Materials for SAE International, and was Chair of the European Cooperative Group on Corrosion Monitoring of Nuclear Materials. He’s currently a member of several international groups including Environmental Degradation of Materials in Nuclear Power Systems – Water Reactors, and the International Cooperative Group on Environmentally Assisted Cracking. He’s also a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3), a member of IOM3’s Surface Engineering Group and Chair of the Corrosion Sub-Group.
Commenting on his appointment, Tony said:
“I’m delighted to join Royce for its next phase, where emphasis will be placed on utilising the new facilities and buildings which have been established at the Hub in Manchester and across its Partner sites around the UK. The Royce Partnership represents significant Government investment and we need to ensure it is fully mobilised to support both academia and industry, enabling the innovative technologies required for the UK to stimulate economic growth and achieve its societal goals. I will therefore be working closely with the Royce team to promote the use of the platforms and to accelerate technology translation from small to large industrial organisations as well as supporting the wider research community.”
