Professor Neil James

I have been Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Plymouth since 1996 and my research interests lie in design for structural integrity, covering the fields of fatigue and fracture, residual stresses, fatigue life prediction and welded joints. I have variously been Dean of Technology (6½ years), Pro-Vice Chancellor (15 months) and Head of the School of Marine Science & Engineering/Associate Dean (6½ years).

I was educated at Allan Wilson Technical High School, Harare, Zimbabwe, hold a BSc(Eng) degree in Mechanical Engineering (Cum Laude 1976) from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg; a PhD (1984) in Metallurgy and Materials Science from the University of Cambridge, England; a DTech (Honoris Causa - 2003) from Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, South Africa, and a DSc(Eng) (2005) from University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.

Awards include the 2020 Robert Moskovic award from Technical Committee TC12 of the European Structural Integrity Society (one of 3 such awards in 2020) in “recognition of an outstanding contribution to Fatigue and Fracture of Structural Alloys and Materials”; the Coffin-Manson medal in 2019 awarded by the Italian Fracture Group in “recognition of the research work done throughout his academic career to understand and model the fatigue behaviour of metallic materials and welded joints”, and the Silver Medal of the South African Institution of Mechanical Engineering in 1986.

I have held, or hold, Visiting or Honorary Professorial appointments at Sheffield-Hallam University, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, China, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa and the University of Ferrara, Italy.

From 1998 until 2020, I was Co-Editor (Europe, Middle East and Africa) of the International Journal of Fatigue (impact factor in 2019 of 4.369 and ranked 16/130 in Mechanical Engineering by Clarivate Analytics), am an Editorial Board member of Engineering Failure Analysis (Elsevier Science), and Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale - the International Journal of the Italian Fracture Group; have previously been on the Editorial Board of the ICE journal Forensic Engineering .

I have authored/co-authored more than 180 research publications in refereed International Journals and Conference Proceedings. I have given numerous invited Plenary or Keynote lectures at International Conferences. In 2008 I was invited to be the John Orr Memorial Lecturer for the South African Institution of Mechanical Engineering. This prestigious lecture is intended to celebrate the achievements and contribution of Professor John Orr OBE, Hon. LLD (1870-1954) to engineering and engineering education in South Africa. My chosen topic was ‘Reliable Products and Structures’.  I am an Honorary Member of the Gruppo Italiano Frattura (Italian Fracture Group) in recognition of “outstanding achievements in the research fields of Material Science, Fracture Mechanics and Structural Integrity”.

I have significant experience of acting as a failure analysis and metallurgical consultant, generating some 180 reports over the last 40 years. My work has ranged over advising on fatigue design, through determining mechanisms and causes of failure in mechanical equipment, plant and structures, to metallurgical assessment, corrosion problems, fatigue life and fracture toughness testing. I have acted variously as a fatigue and fracture expert, an Expert Witness in court cases, and a forensic engineering consultant to industry and legal firms in a number of countries, including the UK, USA, South Africa, Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand.

Qualifications

1973-1976 BSc(Eng) (4 year degree) at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. Graduated Cum Laude in mechanical engineering.
 
1980-1983 PhD in the Department of Metallurgy and Materials Science, University of Cambridge, England. Thesis entitled The Growth of Small Surface Fatigue Cracks in Structural Steels (Supervisor Mr G C Smith and external examiner Dr C J Beevers, University of Birmingham).

2003 Doctor of Technology (Honoris Causa) degree conferred by the Port Elizabeth Technikon, South Africa, in recognition of standing in the field of mechanical properties of metals and development of mechanical engineering at the Technikon.

2005 DSc(Eng) conferred by the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, for a thesis entitled A contribution to knowledge and understanding of fatigue crack growth phenomena representing a distinguished contribution to the advancement of knowledge in the subject.

2003 Honorary award of title of Visiting Professor to the Materials Research Institute at Sheffield-Hallam University for 6 years from June 2003.

2005 Appointed Advisory Professor of the Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, PR China in the State Key Laboratory of Traction Power.

2007 Appointed Honorary Professor of Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa in the Institute for Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering for 5 years from August 2007, re-appointed for a further 5 years in 2012.

2008  Appointed Professore di chiara fama and Docente at the Università degli Studi di Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy (founded 1391) in the Department of Engineering from January 2008.

Professional membership

Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, London

Registered as a Chartered Engineer with the Engineering Council, London.

Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Roles on external bodies

Member of Panel 30, Mechanical, Aeronautical and Manufacturing Engineering in the 2001 Research Assessment Exercise organised by the Higher Education Funding Council of England.
 
Member of the EPSRC Peer Review College; grant Reviewer for the National Science Foundation, USA, the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Austrian Science Fund, the National Research Foundation, South Africa, National Office for Science and Technology Awards, People's Republic of China, the Slovenian Research Agency, the Portuguese Foundation for Science & Technology; the Canada Council for the Arts and the National Centre of Science & Technology Evaluation, Kazakhstan.

Manager and PI of Phase 2 of the development and exploitation of FaME38, the Facility for Materials Engineering at the Institute Laue-Langevin (ILL) and the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), Grenoble, France, on behalf of a UK consortium of 12 University partners (2005). Funded by EPSRC grant EP/C008847/1, £467 460 for 12 months, with €200 000 of matching support from the ILL and ESRF. Previously invited to join the Management Committee (2002).

Teaching interests

Holistic approaches to engineering design and design philosophy

Use of internet resources to promote student-centred learning, enhance access and support larger student groups

Development of high level on-line resources to support teaching, e.g. interactive tutorials and case studies

Fracture mechanics and fatigue

Materials engineering

Staff serving as external examiners

I have acted as an External Examiner for some 43 MPhil and PhD degrees for UK and overseas universities since 2001. Have been an external examiner at the University of Portsmouth and the University of Nairobi, Kenya.

Research interests

Fatigue and fracture of structural alloys and materials

Residual stresses in components and structures

Fatigue design and life prediction

Friction stir welding - optimisation for dynamic performance

Failure analysis

Research degrees awarded to supervised students

Recent research degrees candidates include:

P J McGrath, PhD An investigation of residual stresses induced by forming processes on the fatigue resistance of automotive wheels, 2001.

G R Bradley, PhD Fatigue Properties of Metal Inert Gas and Friction Stir Welded Aluminium Alloy 5383-H321, 2003.

H Lombard, PhD Optimized fatigue and fracture performance of friction stir welded aluminium plate: a study of inter-relationships between process parameters, TMAZ, microstructure, defect population and performance, 2007.

Yanwei Lu, PhD Full-field modelling of crack tip shielding phenomena, 2011.

Mark Newby, PhD Optimisation of shot peening for 12Cr steel in steam turbine blade applications, 2013 (ESKOM Research Programme).

A Mahmood, PhD Processing-performance relationships for fibre reinforced composites, 2015 (Iraqi Government Scholarship).

C A Yeo, MPhil The Development of a Methodology for a Dynamic Design Process, 2004.

Grants & contracts

As either PI or Co-PI, I have held research and/or teaching grants from a number of external funding bodies, including major industry, The International Lead Zinc Research Organisation, the EPSRC, the Leverhulme Foundation, the UK Centre for Materials Education, the Newton Fund of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and the Department of Higher Education and Training, South Africa.

Reports & invited lectures

2020      Plenary Lecture at the 1st Virtual European Conference on Fracture, Google Meet http://www.vecf1.eu/, 29 June to 1 July 2020.

2019      Keynote Lecture at the 8th International Conference on Materials Structure & Micromechanics of Fracture, Brno, Czech Republic, 27-29 June 2019.

2019      Plenary Lecture at the 25th International Conference on Fracture and Structural Integrity, Catania, Sicily, 12-14 June 2019.

2018      Plenary Lecture at the 2018 Conference of the South African Advanced Materials Initiative, Vanderbijlpark, South Africa, 23-26 October 2018.

2017      Plenary Lecture at the International Conference on Structural Integrity and Durability 2017, Dubrovnik, Croatia, 15-18 August 2017.

2016      Plenary Lecture at the 21st European Conference on Fracture, Catania, Sicily, Italy, 20-24 June 2016.

2015      Keynote Lecture at the 4th International Conference of Engineering against Failure, Skiathos, Greece, 24-26 June 2015.

2014      Plenary Lecture at the 4th International Conference on Advances in Product Development and Reliability, Hangzhou, China, 29-321 July 2014.

2012      Plenary Lecture at the 4th International Conference on Crack Paths, Gaeta, Italy, 19 - 21 September, 2012.

2010      Plenary Lecture at the 18th Spanish National Conference on Mechanical Engineering, Ciudad Real, Spain, 305 November 2010. Only four invited plenary lectures were given at this conference.

2010       Plenary Lecture at the 10th International Fatigue Congress, Prague, Czech Republic, 6-11 June 2010. Only four plenary lectures were given at this conference which attracts 300-400 delegates and is the premier fatigue conference series.

2010       Opening Keynote Lecture at the Gruppo Italiano Frattura Workshop on Problems of Fracture in Engineering Materials, Forni di Sopra, Italy, 7-9 January 2010.

Conferences organised

 I have been a member of the Advisory Committees for major international conference series in the area of fatigue, materials, failure analysis and residual stresses and chaired numerous conference sessions. Selected examples include:

Member of the Academy of Finland Mechanics and Materials (Mech1) Review Panel, 19 February 2019, Helsinki, Finland.

Member of the International Advisory Board of the 25th International Conference on Fracture and Structural Integrity, IGF25, Catania, Italy, 12-14 June 2019.

Member of the International Scientific Committee for 4th International Conference on Material and Component Performance under Variable Amplitude Loading, VAL4, Darmstadt, Germany, 30 March-3 April 2020.

Member of both the Scientific Committee and the Advisory Board of 12th International Conference on Multiaxial Fatigue and Fracture, Bordeaux, France, 24-26 June 2019.

Member of the International Scientific Committee of the 6th International Conference on Crack Paths, Verona, Italy, 19-21 September, 2018.

Member of the International Advisory and Scientific Committees of the 19th International Colloquium on Mechanical Fatigue of Metals, Porto, Portugal, 5-7 September 2018.

Session Chair at the International Conference on Structural Integrity and Durability 2017, Dubrovnik, Croatia, 15-18 August, 2017

Member of the International Scientific Committee of the 18th International Colloquium on Mechanical Fatigue of Metals, Gijón, Asturias, Spain, 5-7 September, 2016.

Member of the Scientific Committee of the 11th International Conference on Multiaxial Fatigue and Fracture, Seville, Spain, 1-3 June, 2016.

Member of the International Advisory board for the 21st European Conference on Fracture, ECF21, Catania, Italy, 20-24 June, 2016.

Scientific Committee Member of the 16th International Conference on New Trends in Fatigue and Fracture NT2F16, to be held in Dubrovnik, Croatia, 24-27 May 2016.

Member of the Exact Sciences and Engineering panel, Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, which is the public research funding agency which selects and distributes research funds for a wide range of scientific fields of research, 2013.

Session Chair at the 3rd International Conference on Engineering against Failure, Kos, Greece, 26-28 June 2013.

Member of the International Scientific Committee of the 10th International Conference on Multiaxial Fatigue and Fracture (ICMFF10) held in Kyoto, Japan, 3 -6 June, 2013.

Member of the International Scientific Committee of the 13th International Spring Meeting of the French Society for Metallurgy and Materials, Fatigue Behaviour: From Specimen to Structure, Paris, France, 22-23 May 2013.

Co-Chair and Plenary Lecturer for the 1st International Conference on Advances in Product Development and Reliability (PDR’2008), organized by Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, China, 4-6 August 2008 and for the 2nd International Conference on Advances in Product Development and Reliability (PDR’2010), organized by Northeastern University, Shenyang, China, 28-30 July 2010.

Session Chair at the 6th International Conference on Fracture and Damage Mechanics,
Madeira, Portugal 17-19 July 2007.

Session Chair at the 10th International Conference on the Mechanical Behaviour of Materials, Busan, Korea, 27-31 May 2007.

Member of the International Technical Committee of the Engineering Integrity Society for their International Fatigue Conference, Fatigue 2007, Cambridge, March 2007.

Chair of an Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining Workshop on Failure Analysis Techniques, Qinetiq, Farnborough, 25 January 2007.

Other academic activities

Editorial Advisory Board member of Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale - the International Journal of the Italian Fracture Group from August 2010.

Co-Editor (from January 2008 to December 2020), Regional Editor (Europe, Middle East & Africa) since 1999 of the respected Elsevier publication International Journal of Fatigue.

Member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the Elsevier journal Engineering Failure Analysis from 2004.