Lockdown - a year on

Fiona Robinson

Senior Research Fellow, University of South Wales

Fiona Robinson is a Senior Research Fellow in Electrical Machine Design at University of South Wales and continues to play an active role in the development of NGO electrical steels for automotive applications. Her current research is focused on innovative electric motor development for EV. She performs research to design, model and deliver next generation novel and high performance EV motors to support the electrification of transport. During her 9 years at Cogent Power, Fiona developed and optimized GO and NGO electrical steel products and processes with emphasis on magnetic and metallurgical properties. Prior to changing jobs during the first lockdown, Fiona worked in the steel industry for 28 years in roles including RD&T, Product and Process Development and Process Technology.

Fiona has a BEng in Metallurgy and Materials Science from Imperial College London, a PhD from the University of Liverpool, and a specialist Technology Management MBA from the Open University. Dr Robinson is a Fellow of IOM3 and a member of two of itscommittees including Vice-chair of WIM3.

Outside work, Fiona is married with three sons, two studying at university and one at sixth form college

Jess Middlemiss

Head of Operations, Dyson

In February 2020, just before the first UK lockdown, Jess joined The Dyson Institute (Dyson’s undergraduate apprenticeship programme) as Head of Operations. Jess’ team are there to ensure the smooth running of The Dyson Institute’s day-to-day activities including spaces, equipment, accommodation and, more recently, regular rapid covid-testing of undergraduates!

Prior to joining The Dyson Institute Jess studied Materials Science and Engineering at Imperial College London, graduating with a 2:1 MEng in 2007. She joined the Rolls-Royce Graduate scheme and continued to work  for Rolls-Royce developing Repair techniques for critical complex components until 2011 when she joined Dyson as a Materials Engineer. From 2011 to 2015 she built the Dyson UK Materials Engineering team from scratch, developing business-critical processes in parallel and building an extensive network of contacts within the Materials supply chain and technical research community. Since 2015 Jess’ roles have been more management focussed, leading teams of engineers with mixed specialisms within Technical development and latterly Quality where she was Quality Manager for Personal care, all new category and regulated products and the Dyson Ventilator project. She is also a trained ISO:9001 Lead Auditor.

Alongside her core work, Jess mentors 8 people both internal to Dyson and in external organisations. She also volunteers for her professional institute (IOM3) where she currently sits on the Professional Development and Standards Board and scrutineers CEng applications. She previously chaired the IOM3 Women in Materials Minerals and Mining committee for 3 years. Since 2019 Jess has also been a member of the Industry and Business Partnership Board for STFC which is a division of Innovate UK.

At home Jess is Married to Ben, a Security manager and ex-Army Officer. They have 2 children (ages 6 and 4), countless animals and plenty of land to keep them busy and outside all year round.

Professor Rachel Oliver

University of Cambridge

Professor Rachel Oliver is Director of the Cambridge Centre for Gallium Nitride.  The focus of her research is understanding how the small scale structure of nitride materials effects the performance and properties of devices. She uses expertise in microscopy and materials growth to develop new nanoscale nitride structures which will provide new functionality to the devices of the future.  She is also a passionate advocate of increased equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in science and engineering and is an EDI Champion in the Cambridge School of Physical Sciences.