Mark is Professor of Sustainable Materials and Manufacturing 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 was 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 December 2024 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. He has been a reviewer of research programmes for the European Space Agency (ESA), Enterprise Ireland, the Romanian Government and CSIR in South Africa.
Mark is a Chartered Engineer (CEng) and Chartered Environmentalist (CEnv) 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 the 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
