Rate My Professor Cameron Cameron Playdell-Pearce

Professor Cameron Pleydell-Pearce holds the TATA Steel Chair and serves as Professor of Engineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Swansea University. He is Director of the SUSTAIN EPSRC Future Steel Manufacturing Research Hub, aimed at developing carbon neutral and resource-efficient UK steel supply chains, and Co-Director of the Advanced Imaging of Materials (AIM) Facility. Holding a PhD in novel metal joining techniques, he previously worked as a postdoctoral research officer in the Rolls-Royce University Technology Centre in Materials, specializing in material characterisation, mechanical metallurgy, and component failure investigations. He contributed to establishing an independent commercial ISO17025 accredited mechanical test facility. In 2012, he joined Swansea University as a TATA Steel sponsored lecturer, splitting time between academic and industrial environments to facilitate technology transfer in the steel sector. In 2015, he established the AIM facility, securing £7m in capital funding from government and industry sources, and in 2017, led the creation of the Steel and Metals Institute, with TATA Steel committing 31 industrial researchers and £9m in equipment, complemented by further grants.

Professor Pleydell-Pearce's research focuses on ferrous process metallurgy, raw materials processing, materials characterisation, mechanical metallurgy, and refractory materials, supporting steel industry innovations in rapid alloy prototyping, product development, and optimization of steelmaking and extractive metallurgy methods. He has extensive experience managing industry-academic collaborations, possesses a spin-out company in the steel sector, Kubal-Wraith Ltd., and delivers courses on solution thermodynamics for metallic systems, mechanical metallurgy, and lifing correlations. His contributions have earned the Armourers and Brasiers Venture Prize in 2018 and the Royal Society Translation Award in 2017. Key publications include O'Reilly et al., 'Evaluating the Suitability of Partial Recrystallization as a Strengthening Method for Thin-Gauge, High-Strength Non-Orientated Electrical Steel' (IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, 2018); Lavery et al., 'Combinatorial development and high throughput materials characterisation of steels' (Ironmaking & Steelmaking, 2015); Whittaker et al., 'The effect of prestrain on low and high temperature creep in Ti834' (Materials Science and Engineering: A, 2010); and Cotella et al., 'One-step deposition by slot-die coating of mixed lead halide perovskite for photovoltaic applications' (Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, 2016).