EEC Online Seminars: Environment & Society

Richard Thackray

Lecturer, University of Sheffield

Richard Thackray holds a degree in Materials Science and a PhD in Metallurgy from Imperial College London. He joined the University of Sheffield in 2003 as Tata (Corus) Steel sponsored Lecturer in Steelmaking. His current research interests are related to the production of steel, including the development and optimisation of mould powders for the continuous casting of steel, the role of thermomechanical processing on inclusion behavior, the effect of process route on inclusion distribution and the effect of residual elements on steel processing and properties.

Alan Scholes

Chief Technology Officer , Materials Processing Institute

Alan is the Chief Technology Officer the Materials Processing Institute. The Institute develops new technologies, primarily for the steel and metals industries, in the areas of decarbonisation, circular economy, advanced materials and digital technologies. Alan’s background encompasses over 30 years of research in the steel sector, particularly for liquid steelmaking and casting where he has worked internationally developing and implementing new processes on a variety of steel plants. He has a strong interest in both operational and process safety and environmental impact based on knowledge of both existing processes and the challenges associated with process change.

Louis Brimacombe

Chairman , British Standards Committee on Sustainable Performance, Consumption and Production (SCP/1)

Louis is a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, commonly known as IOM3, and he is a chartered Chemical Engineer. He is currently Chairman of the IOM3’s, Sustainable Development Group, a group with members across all materials sectors, supply chains and markets, and which also tries to unravel the complexities of trying to achieve ‘sustainability’ in line with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals.

He spent 35 years in the steel industry, the last 15 years of which as Head of Environmental Technology at Tata Steel, leading a research team which made cost effective environmental improvements for both the manufacturing processes and new product development areas. Louis is an experienced assessor of applications for funding grants for new and innovative research projects submitted to the UK Government Innovate UK competitions.