Roger Reed

Roger Reed is a Professor of Engineering Science and Materials at the University of Oxford. He works at Oxford's Begbroke Science Park, and is associated with its Departments of Engineering Science and Materials. He is a Fellow at St. Anne's College, Oxford.

Reed was born in Catford in south-east London and educated at Dulwich College and Corpus Christi College, University of Cambridge. He has held academic positions at Imperial College London, University of Cambridge, the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Canada and more recently the University of Birmingham, prior to his current position at University of Oxford.

During the period 1994 to 2002 whilst at the University of Cambridge, Reed helped to establish the Rolls-Royce University Technology Centre in the Dept of Materials Science and Metallurgy. During the period 2002 to 2005, he lived in Vancouver on the west coast of Canada where he held a Canada Research Chair at UBC. During the period 2006 to 2012 he worked in the Dept of Metallurgy and Materials at the University of Birmingham, where he acted as Director of Research and was involved in setting up the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) at Ansty, Warwickshire. He moved to Oxford in 2013. He holds a visiting position at The Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung, Düsseldorf, Germany.

Reed lives in a small village near Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, with his wife and son.

Reed is a materials scientist whose research is focused on high temperature materials and nickel-based superalloys for use in jet engines and for generating power. Reed has also researched deformation mechanisms in single crystal superalloys under various mechanical fatigue conditions; phase transitions and oxidation reactions; as well as quantitatively studying process modelling for welding and forging.

Reed’s scientific work relates to the metallic alloys which are used at temperatures beyond 600 deg C, particularly those to resist creep, fatigue and oxidation. He and his research group have worked on applications for nickel-based superalloys, titanium alloys and heat-resisting steels, particularly for jet engine applications. His interests relate particularly to the processing, performance and properties of these materials, and the inter-relationship between these topics.

He has published widely in this field, particularly in journals such as Acta Materialia, Materials Science & Engineering, Metallurgical Transactions and Materials Science & Technology. In 2006, his book ‘The Superalloys: Fundamentals and Applications’ was published by Cambridge University Press. In 2012, he acted as Chair of the International Symposium for Superalloys, at Champion, Pennsylvania, USA.

In 2002, Reed left a teaching position at the University of Cambridge to take up a position at the University of British Columbia and to become the Canada Research Chair in Design and Manufacturing of Smart Coating Systems for Improved Turbine Efficiency. While in Canada, Reed focused on using thermal barriers to improve the efficiency of gas turbine engines and adapting technologies developed for jet engines to decrease the costs of power generation by industrial gas turbines. Reed was elected Fellow of the Institute of Materials in 2005. In 2011, Reed was elected as a fellow of ASM International for his research. Reed was awarded with the 2012 Humboldt Research Award by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation from the Max Planck Institute for his research.

Reed is well known for working closely with a number of industrial companies such as Siemens, Alstom and Rolls-Royce plc. The metallic alloys on which he works are used in the very hottest parts of the turbomachinery produced by these companies. In recent years, Reed has worked particularly on computer-based modelling methods for the simulation of various phenomena related to these materials: particularly their design, use in component fabrication and performance in engine applications.

In 2007 he established the Partnership for the Simulation of Manufacturing and Materials, a consortium of organisations with common interests in this technology. Techniques for the modelling of processing operations such as heat treatment, welding, forging, forming and net-shape manufacturing are being developed. This so-called process simulation is important for right-first-time manufacturing in the aerospace and energy sectors, amongst others. This work continues with the University of Birmingham leading it.