John Francis

Biography

John Francis gained his academic qualifications from The University of Adelaide, and began his career in 1998 with CSIRO in Australia, working as a postdoctoral fellow in welding process technology. John was promoted to the role of Research Scientist (Welding Processes) in 2001. He spent seven years with CSIRO in total, where he undertook contract research projects and consultancy work funded by both government and industry clients, developing welding strategies for application in the aerospace, minerals processing and power generation sectors. In 2005 John moved to the UK to take up a post as a Research Fellow in Materials Performance within the School of Materials at The University of Manchester. In this role John was involved in coordinating a programme of research focussing on the measurement, modelling and mitigation of residual stresses for welds in nuclear power plants, working in collaboration with Rolls-Royce Marine. In 2009 moved to The Open University to work as a Lecturer in Materials Engineering, where he was awarded an EPSRC grant to investigate transformation plasticity in welds, and he co-supervised two PhD students. In January 2011, John returned to The University of Manchester as a Senior Lecturer in Welding Technology, where he is involved in the Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (NAMRC) project. John is accredited as a European Welding Engineer under the European Welding Federation (EWF) qualification scheme.

Research Interest

Welding and Cladding Processes, Welding Metallurgy, Residual Stresses in Welded Joints and Clad Surfaces, Microstructure-Stress Relationships in Welds