WIM3 | A Level Playing Field?

Dr Fiona Robinson

Senior Research Fellow, University of South Wales

Dr Fiona C J Robinson is currently Faculty Support Manager for the Faculty of Computing, Engineering and Science at the University of South Wales, she is also an active in electrical steels research developing new materials for electric motor applications. Since joining USW in 2020, Fiona has performed research on advanced materials for EV motors, electric motor design, simulation, build and performance testing. She has over 20 research publications in the fields of advanced materials, materials characterisation, and industrial process technology. Fiona worked in the steel industry for 28 years in a variety of roles including RD&T, Product and Process Development and Process Technology. Fiona spent nine years at Cogent Power Ltd developing GO and NGO electrical steel products and processes with particular emphasis on magnetic and metallurgical properties. Fiona has expertise and experience in steel industry through process and product data analytics including external collaborations with many industrial and academic institutions.

Fiona has a BSc(Eng.) in Metallurgy and Materials Science from Imperial College, a PhD from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Liverpool, and a specialist Technology Management MBA from the Open University. Dr Robinson is a Fellow FIMMM of the Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Materials (IOM3), lecture secretary of NCMS and a member of two IOM3 professional committees including the Board of the Energy Materials Group (EMG). The EMG is a specialist cross cutting technical group providing a focus on the materials issues in energy supply and optimisation including all forms of energy generation and advanced materials to facilitate the electrification of transport such as materials for batteries, electric vehicles and charging infrastructure.

Joanna Whiteman

Head of Diversity and Inclusion, Royal Academy of Engineering

Joanna is the Head of Diversity and Inclusion at the Royal Academy of Engineering and leads on the Academy’s work to accelerate diversity and inclusion throughout engineering. She and her team work with engineering companies, academic institutions and professional bodies in particular, providing evidence-based programming and rigorous research to support them on their inclusion journeys and enable their good practices to reach the wider sector.

Joanna began her career as an employment lawyer, advising companies across the UK as they sought to comply with the Equality Act 2010. She then moved into the charitable sector and, as Head of Litigation and then Co-director at the Equal Rights Trust, she supported global partners to use the law to advance equality.

Joanna has advised, trained and guided hundreds of organisations as they embed inclusive practices in their own work and continue their work advocating on behalf of underrepresented communities. Joanna has also worked closely with organisations on developing equality policies and advocating for relevant legal reform at the national and international level.

Suchitra Sebastian

Professor, University of Cambridge

Suchitra Sebastian is Professor in Physics and EPSRC Established Career Fellow at the University of Cambridge. Her research seeks to discover exotic quantum phases of matter in complex materials. To this end, her group’s experiments involve tuning the co-operative behaviour of electrons within these materials by subjecting them to extreme conditions including low temperature, high applied pressure, and intense magnetic field. Under these conditions, interactions between a trillion trillion electrons, as many as the stars in the observable universe, create surprising and unpredictable collective quantum phases akin to new materials ‘universes’. Emergent quantum phenomena studied by Suchitra’s research group include high-temperature superconductivity and a new unconventional insulating state of matter they recently discovered. Most recent awards Suchitra has received include the New Horizons in Physics Prize (2022) awarded by the Breakthrough Foundation and the Schmidt Science Polymath award (2022). Suchitra is founder director of the Cavendish Arts Science programme, and co-founder of Bread Theatre and Film Company. She participates in scientific research for non-imperialistic, non-militaristic purposes.