Dr Philip Bischler is Senior Consultant in the Engineering Support Department of Magnox North where he acts as Portfolio Development Manager for both the Chapelcross and Hunterston nuclear reactor sites. Other duties involve Strategy Analysis, Intelligent Customer and Design Authority roles in a number of company projects.

Phil obtained his first degree at University College Swansea in Material Science and Technology followed by a DPhil at Oxford. His initial career has taken him from British Steel, Electrical Steels Division and steel making at Port Talbot, to Alcan International where he carried out alloy development work for military/aerospace applications. After some years developing aluminium–lithium alloys for the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough, he set up a company supplying Expert Witnesses for biomedical materials failure cases.

Since joining the CEGB in 1986, Phil has predominantly been involved in the application of materials in the nuclear industry. He has been involved in the structure–property relationships of irradiated fuel and cladding; reactor pressure vessel (RPV) steel safety assessments; fracture studies; steel weld life assessments; and in-reactor micro sampling. He has also been involved with a number of high profile company projects on reactor sites such as the remote sampling of RPVs, development of reactor site decommissioning plans and obtaining regulator/stakeholder agreement to use explosive demolition techniques. He has authored a large number of external publications and conference papers.  

Phil has been a member of the Institute since 1979. As well as being a member of Council three times, he has also served on the Local Affairs Board (which he now chairs) since 1986, on the University Accreditation Committee, and has represented many Local Societies in honorary positions. Encouraging younger members has been one of his aims for many years. He has helped to organise and judge the national Young Persons’ Lecture Competition for over twenty years and has chaired the judging panel for the World event since 2006.

Phil is a Fellow of the Institute, a Chartered Engineer, a Chartered Scientist and a member of the Association for Project Management. In his spare time he is keen international mountaineer, marathon/mountain marathon runner who likes mountain biking, power kiting and travel. He also actively supports and raises funds for a number of charity organisations.

Email: p.bischler@iom3.org