Background

Born in Blackburn, Lancashire and attended Ledbury Grammar School, Herefordshire. Graduated from Loughborough University in 1984 and subsequently worked as a research engineer both at Loughborough University and at the Lucas Advanced Engineering Centre in Solihull, Birmingham. Appointed as a lecturer in 1990 and promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1998. Visiting Professor, Chalmers University of Technology, Göteborg, Sweden and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 2001/2002.

Research Interests and Activities

Physical realisation of electronic products and other micro-engineered devices, e.g.:
Simulation and control of electronics manufacturing processes, such as reflow soldering, conductive adhesive bonding and PCB manufacturing;
Materials for electronics packaging and interconnection, including properties of conductive particles in adhesives and high temperature interconnection materials;
Thermal design of electronic systems;
Reliability, particularly using physics of failure type approaches, including simulation of thermal fatigue in solder joints, effects of contamination and coatings on reliability, reliability of electrical connectors, and how reliability is affected by the manufacturing process.

External Activities

Journal editorial board memberships:
Editor of Soldering and Surface Mount Technology Journal from 1998 to 2007
Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Components, Packaging and Manufacturing Technology: Electronic Packaging Manufacturing since 1996
Reviews Editor for the Journal of Electronic Manufacturing from 1991 - 2000

Learned society engagement:
Chairman of UK & Republic of Ireland Chapter of the IEEE Components, Packaging and Manufacturing Technology Society from 1996 to Feb 2001
Elected Member at Large of Board of Governors, IEEE CPMT Society, Jan 2003 – Dec 2005
Member of IEEE CPMT Society conferences sub-committee, May 2004 – Dec 2005

Professional affiliations:
Member of the Institute for Engineering and Technology
Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers,
Senior Member of the Institution of Electronic and Electrical Engineers

Major conference activity:
UK Member of Organising Committee/International Liason - ASME/IEEE/IEPS/JSE International Intersociety Electronic Packaging Conference - INTERpack
International Advisory Board Member – EMAP, the International Conference on Electronic Materials and Processes (Conference co-chair – EMAP 2003, Singapore)
European Committee Member – IEEE VLSI Packaging Workshop of Japan, Kyoto
Member of the IEEE ECTC Conference Materials and Processes Committee
Manufacturing Committee chair, IEEE CPMT European Systemintegration Technology Conference

Advisory roles:
Member of the Industrial Advisory Group for the National Physical Laboratory programme on Encapsulants for Electronics
Member of the Industrial Advisory Group for the National Physical Laboratory programme on Electronics Interconnection
Grant proposal referee for the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
Grant proposal referee for the Hong Kong University Grants Council

Referee for the Proceedings of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers, IEEE Transactions, the International Journal of Production Research and the ASME Journal of Electronic Packaging

Collaborative Research - current examples include:
New Thyristors for T & D Applications (NEWTON), a TSB funded award in collaboration with Dynex, Areva and Semefab.
3D-M-Integration: the design and serial manufacture of 3D miniaturised products, an EPSRC funded project in collaboration with a large network of companies and other universities.
Complex Low Volume Electronics Simulation (CLOVES), a TSB funded project in collaboration with Goodrich, GE Aviation, STI, Accelonix, TWI and Warwick University.
Design and Simulation of Complex Low Volume Electronics Production (DISCOVER), an EPSRC IeMRC funded project linked to the CLOVES programme.

Commercialisation of research:
Inventor of the Adaptive Intelligent Reflow (AIR) system licensed to Quad Europe Ltd.
Inventor of the technology behind the Rapid Oven Setup system marketed throughout the world by Datapaq Ltd.

Awards

1993: I.Mech.E. Thatcher Bros. Prize for the best paper on a manufacturing industries mechanical engineering subject published in the Proceedings of the Institution that year

1993: I.Mech.E. Donald Julius Groen Prize of the Manufacturing Technology Design and Quality Group

2000: Winner of the Litterati Club highly commended award

Publications

View central admin publications database (new window)

University Administration

Elected Member of Senate (2006-2009)

Links

The Interconnection Group: http://www.lboro.ac.uk/icg