The goal of the IOM3 Non-Ferrous & Light Metals Group (formerly Light Metals Division) is to share knowledge and support education in non-ferrous and light metals to maximize sustainability, identify opportunities in advanced applications and promote the development of advanced manufacturing. The group also aims to ensure a vibrant and innovative non-ferrous and light metals technology scene in the UK.
The group is steered by a leadership team consisting of representatives from academia and industry, many at the forefront of their field. We welcome IOM3 members with an interest in non-ferrous and light metals and any new ideas for events, articles, and other initiatives.
This group includes the non-ferrous interests of the former IOM3 High Temperature Materials Committee, and is seeking representation from members with interests in copper and nickel based alloys and systems.
Meet the Non-Ferrous & Light Metals Group Leadership Team
Cheryll Pitt
Now doing consultancy, a specialist in Materials Science with over 40 years’ experience in the military environment providing successful advice and guidance in the fields of: material selection; materials’ characterisation; failure analysis and environmental damage of aircraft assemblies and components to military customers.
Xiaorong Zhou
Professor Xiaorong Zhou has thirty years of experience in research corrosion control and novel surface engineering of light alloys, and surface and interface characterisation, which has contributed quantitative information in the pursuit of structure/property/performance relationships in alloys for application in aerospace, automotive, architecture and packaging industries. He has led a number of significant research initiatives funded by UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, Innovate UK and industry, He has been PI on over 60 projects, and has developed and managed significant collaborations and networking with research organisations in the UK and overseas. He has published over 360 papers (h-index 63), and awarded the Jim Kape Memorial Medal of the Institute of Metal Finishing in 2001. To date, he has supervised 35 PhD students.
Professor Mark Jolly
Mark is Professor and Director of Manufacturing and Materials at Cranfield University. He has over 40 years’ experience in manufacturing and materials. He spent 13 years working in industry in automotive and tier 1&2 suppliers into manufacturing both in the UK and abroad before moving into academia in 1995. In 2012 he joined Cranfield after 17 years at the University of Birmingham. He has managed over £17.5 M of research projects since 1999 and has over 350 publications, technical reports, articles and books. He is Director of the UKRI Transforming the Foundation Industries Research and Innovation Hub (TransFIRe), and co-Director of the Engineering and Physical sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Centre for Doctoral Training in Sustainable Materials and Manufacturing which offers a triple degree with the Universities of Warwick and Exeter. Mark is on the Royal Academy of Engineering National Engineering Policy Centre (NEPC) working group on Materials for Net-Zero and sits on the Advisory Board for the Advanced School on Circular Metal Components for the Swedish Manufacturing Industry (CIRCUMET).
Until last December Mark was also co-Director of the Circular Economy Network plus in Transport Systems (CENTS). Mark has sat on the EPSRC Peer Review College since 2003 and sits on the council of the Cast Metals Federation, is a reviewer for the European Space Agency (ESA) and Enterprise Ireland. He is a Chartered Engineer and Chartered Environmentalist and sits on the Society for the Environment Honorary Fellows Panel. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3), and is the chair of the Materials Processing and Manufacturing leadership group. He also sits on the IOM3 Sustainable Development and Light Metals leadership groups. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Cast Metals Engineers (ICME). Mark was Chair of the Solidification Committee of The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society (TMS, USA) for two years until 2018. He is a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Founders and Freeman of the City of London.
With his co-authors he is the recipient of the 2024 TMS Light Metals Warren Peterson Subject Award for Cast Shop for Aluminum Production with a paper entitled “Defect Minimisation in Vacuum-Assisted Plaster Mould Investment Casting Through Simulation of High-Value Aluminium Alloy Components”. Mark was the recipient of the 2019 John Campbell Gold Medal awarded by ICME for “continual advancement in sustainable manufacturing and promotion of excellence in casting technologies”. He was the 2010 Winner of the University of Birmingham Josiah Mason Founder’s Award for Business Advancement and in 2008 was the recipient of the Oliver Stubbs Medal (ICME).
His main areas of current research are in circular economy and sustainability including resource efficient manufacturing, process modelling and novel casting processes. He has worked with many well-known names across a number of sectors including Rolls-Royce, Depuy-Synthes (Johnson & Johnson), Bentley, Aston Martin, BAES, Finmeccanica, GKN, EnCirc360, Kimberly-Clark Corporation, Hanson Cement, Constellium, Siemens, TPC AB, Vesuvius, St Gobain, Luxfer, Lucideon, Pilkington Glass, Trent Refractories, and Coca-Cola. He has also championed working with many small companies especially SMEs who supply to large companies.
Simon Hogg FIMMM
Simon is a Fellow of the IOM3 and a Reader in Metallurgy in the Materials Department at Loughborough University. He obtained his PhD from The University of Sheffield, Department of Engineering Materials. He held a postdoctoral appointment at Oxford University working on Al-Li alloys for airframe applications. His research is centred on the use of advanced processing and characterisation techniques to understand microstructural development and properties in complex, novel alloys. Presently, the focus of research includes sustainable metallurgy, use of x-ray imaging to understand solidification, and microstructure and texture development in industrially processed light alloys. As well as holding a Strategic Advisor position, he is a member of the leadership team for the IOM3 Nonferrous and Light Metals Group and Past President and current Treasurer for the East Midlands Materials Society.
Dr Masoumeh Faraji
Masoumeh, with a PhD in Engineering Materials from the University of Sheffield awarded in 2007, has extensive research experience in metal manufacturing processes, including casting, thermomechanical processing, and welding technologies. She is currently an assistant professor in sustainable manufacturing and materials in Coventry University, working on optimisation of metal processing through process modelling and utilising advanced characterisation techniques. She is focused on developing sustainable thermomechanical processes to manufacture and extend service life of advanced structural steel components for energy applications.
Matthew Thomas
Dr Matthew Thomas CEng FIMMM began a Technical Apprenticeship at TATA Steel in 2008, where he embarked on a hands-on journey through various laboratories, gaining essential insights into steel-making processes and emission monitoring. Presently, Matthew holds the position of Environment Lead Governance at TATA Steel UK within the Sustainability and Environment Department, focusing on environmental management systems and long-term sustainability strategies.
Matthew’s qualifications include an Engineering Doctorate at Swansea University, UK, a BEng in Material Science at University of Wales Trinity Saint David, and an HNC in Chemistry, and a BTEC in Engineering at Bridgend College, UK.
Responding to the appointment Matthew said, ‘I am determined to lead by example and to propel our Technical Community toward even greater accomplishments in the realm of sustainable development. My ambitions for this role align with the mission to actively contribute to the UK's net-zero and sustainability goals.
I intend to champion robust environmental practices, drive innovation in sustainable initiatives, and promote the reduction of our carbon footprint. It is my firm belief that the preservation of our environment for future generations hinges on the collective efforts of dedicated professionals like those within the group. Together, we can address critical issues concerning sustainable development and environmental stewardship, advancing our field's critical role in shaping a sustainable future.
In the footsteps of my esteemed predecessor, Emma, I look forward to working closely with the current and future members of the group to realise these ambitions. The challenges we face are significant, but with unwavering commitment and a shared vision, we can make substantial progress in shaping a more sustainable future. I'm excited to embark on this journey as the Chair of the IOM3 Sustainable Development Group and to build upon the exceptional work of my predecessors’.
Dr. Karthikeyan Hariharan
Dr. Karthikeyan Hariharan is an Alexander von Humboldt fellow and Lecturer at the Friedrich-Alexander University, Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany. Prior to that he completed his PhD from The Ohio State University in the United States. He brings expertise in corrosion mechanisms, Ni-based alloys, advanced manufacturing and sustainability. He has been involved with the IOM3 and the NFLM committee since 2023
Joe Robson
Joe Robson graduated in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge in 1993, and obtained his PhD from the same institution in 1996. Since then he has worked at Cambridge, Swansea, and Manchester universities, and in 2003 was appointed to a Lectureship. Joe is a member of the Light Alloy Processing group with research interests that are focussed on microstructural evolution and control in industrial alloys, with an emphasis on modelling.
Current work involves the coupling of thermodynamic models, based on Calphad methods, to novel kinetic models, enabling the time and temperature dependence of the microstructure (particularly second phase particles) to be determined for complex industrial alloys and processes. Such an approach is being used to predict microstructure evolution and subsequent effect on properties for a range of aluminium, magnesium, and zirconium alloys during processes such as hot rolling and welding. Applications for these materials include the automotive, aerospace, and nuclear industries.
Dr Salaheddin Rahimi CEng FIMMM
Dr Salaheddin Rahimi (Project Co-Lead), CEng FIMMM is the Technical Lead of the Advanced Forming Research Centre (AFRC) at the University’ of Strathclyde. He is an expert in the measurements, modelling and control of materials’ thermos-mechanical properties during manufacturing. A key theme of his research is to control materials characteristics and residual stress during manufacturing process of forging and forming. Salah’s previous research had focused on meso-scale fracture and the behaviour of materials under service loads in critical environments, using advanced photography techniques and electron microscopy to determine how microstructural features interact with cracks. More recently, he has focused on developing a digital-twin platform for forging process and digital transformation of legacy equipment for in-process decision making to obtain part’s within dimensional tolerances and with the desired microstructure. Salah joined the University of Strathclyde in 2010 where he is currently the AFRC's Technical Lead and the chair of the AFRC’s industrially funded CORE Research Programme. Salah is a Fellow of The Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3) and he is registered as a Chartered Engineer (CEng).
Nigel Martin
Nigel is a titanium specialist at Rolls Royce aerospace, his role covers the whole product life cycle from R&D, strategy, manufacturing to in-service investigations, he also directs PhD research projects across UK universities. His primary focus is on monolithic titanium alloys but has also developed titanium aluminide intermetallics and metal matrix composites and covers application of aluminium and magnesium alloys. In addition to his role as a titanium specialist he also reviews many other materials technologies being developed through the TRL process, from additively manufactured nickel alloys, composites to surface coatings. He has detailed understanding of the structure / property / performance relationships of alloys and their implications on design, lifing and NDE of critical rotating parts, fan blades and containment systems. In 2024 Nigel was awarded the Harvey Flower Titanium Prize.
Geoff Scamans
Geoff is a metallurgist who has worked in aluminium based industrial R&D for more than fifty years. He has developed a significant number of collaborative R&D programmes with the aim to re-establish aluminium manufacturing in the UK with the emphasis on sustainability and the use of end-of-life scrap rather than prime aluminium as the low embedded carbon input. He is the Chief Scientific Officer of Innoval Technology and a Professor of Metallurgy and the Head of Industrial Research at the Brunel Centre for Advanced Solidification Technology (BCAST) at Brunel University of London where the main emphasis is on the transition of metals manufacturing from a linear to a circular economy.
