2025 Conference Speakers

Michael Bodie is a Principal Research Engineer at GKN Aerospace, with ten years of experience in the aerospace and defence sector. With a background in Materials Science and Engineering, he has specialised in additive manufacturing, focusing on the development and industrialisation of laser powder bed fusion (LPBF). Michael currently leads GKN technology maturation projects for LPBF of aero-engine components, with a particular emphasis on Ti-6Al-4V and Inconel 718 alloys. 

Charlie is the Technical Sales Manager for 3DCeram, and the Area Sales Manager for the UK & Ireland as well as Australia and New Zealand, having previously worked as a Research & Development Engineer at the company.

Soon after joining 3DCeram following his master’s degree in the science and engineering of materials obtained from the University of Limoges, Charlie worked on the development of new materials, new machines, and printing of benchmark parts to showcase 3DCeram’s SLA capabilities. Now he’s turned his attention to working with customers on developing their projects and adopting AM for their own benefit.

As the Aerospace, Defence & Nuclear Product Marketing Manager, Enya’s role looks at recognising new opportunities and implementing strategies to exploit Lucideon’s capabilities. Enya’s technology focuses include ceramic matrix composites, ceramic additive manufacturing, and ceramic processing.

Furthermore, Enya completed her MEng Aeronautical Engineering degree in 2022. With her technical background and commercial understanding, she ensures market needs are addressed, and new innovative and disruptive opportunities are identified.

Dr Jafar Daji is Technical Manager at Parkinson Spencer Refractories Ltd (PSR). He joined PSR in 2009 after working as a Materials Scientist and Project Manager at Morgan Advanced Materials in Swansea. He obtained a PhD in Materials Science from the University of Leeds subsequently continuing there as a postdoctoral research fellow before moving into industry. 

His professional interests include high temperature materials (particularly refractories and ceramics for glass and other demanding applications), materials technology, process improvement, and decarbonisation. 

He is a member of the Society of Glass Technology.  

He serves on the External Advisory Board for the Department of Materials at the University of Manchester.  

Arya Hakimian is a Subject Matter Expert at C-Therm Technologies with nearly a decade of experience in thermal analysis and materials characterization. He holds an MSc in Chemistry and a BSc in Medicinal Chemistry from the University of New Brunswick. 

Gerardo Igler is an accomplished sales professional at Lithoz, specialising in ceramic 3D printing solutions. With his extensive background in business development and customer relations, he plays a pivotal role in driving market growth and expanding Lithoz’s global presence. He specialises in identifying strategic opportunities, fostering partnerships and delivering innovative, industry-specific solutions. Gerardo is committed to advancing the adoption of cutting-edge technology through strong client engagement and effective sales strategies, and is dedicated to excellence.

Simon has 25 years plus experience in inventing and developing methods for materials characterisation. He is a world leader in creation of in situ methods, chemical imaging and software development for high throughput data processing. Following a BSc in biochemistry at Kings College, London, Simon obtained an MSc and PhD in pure and applied crystallography from Birkbeck College, London. As post-doctoral research, he co-founded Finden Ltd, a scientific consultancy and analytical services provider that specializes in high-end materials characterization known for its expertise in advanced X-ray techniques and deep learning-based data analysis.  

Tony Kinsella joined Lucideon in July 2004, bringing over 30 years’ experience in general management to his role. Tony is a qualified marketeer, strategist and leader and has a background in chemistry.  Tony has led Lucideon to its market-leading position as a development and commercialisation organisation (DCO), specialising in materials technology, processes, and testing.

His day-to-day role encompasses leading the Group and the Management Team and horizon scanning with a view to future proofing Lucideon alongside the CSO; and directing decisions on investments and spends.

Tony has lived and worked in the USA, Germany, South Africa, alongside the UK and brings his varied experience to his position as CEO and to his position as Director of Lucideon Group Ltd and all Lucideon companies.

Professor David Knowles joined the Henry Royce Institute as its CEO in early 2019, bringing with him a wealth of experience from senior roles in both academia and industry in the areas of materials and structural integrity. David is particularly experienced in leading the collaboration between higher education and industry, to accelerate energy sector-related research, knowledge transfer and implementation. 

David is a Fellow of the Royal Academy, a Professor of Nuclear Engineering at Bristol University and was Co-Director of the South-West Nuclear Hub and Atkins Fellow. Through his career he has lead materials research at Shell Global Solutions, served as CTO at Quest Integrity (operating throughout Australasia and SE Asia) and lectured at Cambridge University; collaborating with Rolls-Royce as Assistant Director of their Ni-alloy UTC. 

In recent years David has led industrial projects related to design and assessment of renewable energy offshore structures, oil and gas and nuclear plant. He holds and participates in several EPSRC/Innovate grants and is the PI on ‘SINDRI Prosperity Partnership’ which is developing cutting-edge digital technology for nuclear plant design and assessment. 

Lucy is CoDirector of the Foundation Industries Sustainability Consortium (FISC), where she leads the scaleup and commercialisation of disruptive innovations across the Foundation Industries. She develops strategies that strengthen the sector’s longterm resilience while driving sustainable growth. A Materials Engineer with an MBA, Lucy is committed to delivering realworld impact and championing sustainability, equity, diversity, and inclusion. Alongside her role at FISC, Lucy is Head of Commercial at Glass Futures Limited, leading the commercial and membership teams to deliver pilotscale research and innovation for the glass sector and its wider supply chains. 

My name is Thomas Strohmer and I work at ATM Qness GmbH in the Sales & Product Management Hardness Testing department. Within the international field of hardness testing, I focus on the development and implementation of modern testing solutions for industrial applications. I support distributor worldwide in designing testing processes that are efficient, reliable and practical, and in continuously optimising them. By combining technical expertise, sales experience and market insight, I develop bespoke solutions that meet the requirements of global markets, promote innovation and create sustainable added value – always with a focus on quality, efficiency and user benefits. 

Fran Synnott is a Technologist at the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) within the Structures, Manufacturing and Materials team. As part of the ATI Technology team, she supports the delivery of the ATI programme, which invests in research and technology development to deliver the strategic priorities set out in the ATI’s technology strategy, Destination Zero, aimed at enabling net-zero aviation. 

Fran holds a PhD in Materials Science from the University of Sheffield. Her doctoral and postdoctoral research focused on high-temperature materials, building experience across aerospace and space-related research programmes.  

Mandar Thakare is the Associate Director of ICAM. He joined bp in Sep 2019, as the Materials Science Programme Manager in Group Research, and is responsible for the operational aspects of the ICAM partnership. He has over ten years’ experience in materials engineering, innovation strategy and new product development. Prior to joining bp, he worked as an Innovation Programme Lead at Element Six Ltd., where he supported a multi-site global team of scientists in developing and commercialising novel polycrystalline diamond products for oil and gas applications. As part of this role, he was closely involved in developing cutters for a range of O&G drilling applications across the globe, working closely with field users and drill-bit manufacturers.

He holds a BEng in Mechanical Engineering (Mumbai, India), MSc in Surface Engineering (University of Nottingham), a PhD in Tribology (University of Southampton, Schlumberger plc funded) and an MBA (Alliance Manchester Business School). Prior to Element Six Ltd., he held a post-doctoral research position at the Osney Thermofluids Lab, University of Oxford, working closely with Rolls-Royce plc on gas turbine seals. During this period, he also tutored undergraduates in Engineering Science at St. Catherine’s College, Oxford. After his PhD, he worked for Schlumberger plc, developing wear-corrosion resistant solutions for downhole directional drilling systems. During this period, he was responsible for identifying and qualifying coatings and materials solutions for Schlumberger tools deployed globally, through new suppliers and technologies. He has published journal papers, book chapters and conference papers on the subject of tribocorrosion and is a member of the IMechE Tribology Committee as well as a reviewer for journals such as Wear, Tribology International, ASME Journal of Tribology.

Viktor Zólyomi is a 20+ year veteran computational materials scientist (110+ papers, 10000+ citations, 40+ h-index) with 7 years’ experience leading commercial R&D projects for clients of the Hartree Centre including Lucideon, Haydale, and Unilever, along with methodology development in collaboration with IBM Research under the Hartree National Centre for Digital Innovation programme. He is the lead developer of Hartree-MaDE, the Hartree Materials Discovery Engine. His research focus is the computational discovery of configurationally disordered crystalline materials such as high entropy compounds, using modern scalable methods like machine learning interatomic potentials.