Professor David Taplin

E-mail: [email protected]

Currently:Visiting Professor. Environmental Research Institute. University College, Cork, Ireland; Honorary Professor 

of Industrial Ecology CQU, Australia; Emeritus Fellow (and Professor of Engineering, Retired), Trinity College, Dublin; 

Senior Member of King's College, Cambridge. 

Formerly: Professor of Sustainable Manufacturing NTU, Singapore; Professor of Mechanical Engineering, University

of Waterloo, Canada; Foundation Dean of Engineering & Physical Systems, CQU; Profesores Invitades, CUJAE, 

Havana, Cuba; Head of the School of Manufacturing, Materials and Mechanical Engineering, University of Plymouth;

Head of the Department of Manufacturing and Mechanical Engineering, University of Dublin; By-Fellow of Churchill 

College, Cambridge; Professor of Materials, University of California, USA; UGC Fellow, BHU, India; Lecturer in 

Physical Metallurgy, Melbourne University, Australia; Senior Consultant, ExxonMobil, New Jersey, USA; AEA 

Research Bursar, Oxford; ICI Student Apprentice, Birmingham and South Wales.

Career Narrative

Stage 1: Foundations: Northern Grit and Southern Cloisters

furnaces and steel mills yet beside the Peak District National Park. Early subliminal memories are of Sheffield burning in the 

WWII Blitz and sledging in the snow with my brother. My father was a journalist originally from Stratford-upon-Avon and 

my mother was a schoolteacher in Chesterfield; my brother (born 1931) is Director of an engineering company in London. In 

1950 I won a county scholarship to Christ's Hospital under a new Labour Government initiative for creating a more 

democratic and egalitarian post-war society. 

Christ's Hospital (like Oundle) had established an Engineering Sixth Form with innovative heuristic (project-based) teaching –

building on ideas from William Armstrong FRS & from Barnes Wallis FRS, implemented since 1931 by the Head of 

Science & Engineering, Gordon Van Praagh. In 1955 I undertook a project on "Metallography" using an optical 

reflection microscope and a tensometer. This stimulated my interest in a career in the metallurgical industry of my

gritty roots (attractive as were the pastoral cloisters and intellectual communities of Oxford and Christ's Hospital).

In 1956 I was selected for a "Public School Short Works Course" at Stanton Ironworks working on centrifugal

iron casting. These courses were designed to encourage imaginative public school pupils to embark on careers in 

hardcore manufacturing industry rather than the more traditional careers of church, city, army, civil service, medicine, 

politics. Thus in 1957, instead of going to university, I joined ICI (in those days the largest UK manufacturing 

company -- later becoming IMI) in Birmingham ass a Student Apprentice on a newly established industrial 

programme leading to the "Diploma in Technology" in Metallurgical & Manufacturing Engineering.

The Diploma in Technology was the flagship qualification of the eleven new "Colleges of Advanced Technology" 

(CATs) designed as an industrial qualification more technopreneurial than the BSc(Eng) and akin to the German 

"DiplIng". Sadly the DipTech had a "life" of less than five years. The great idea of the industrial DipTech was 

deemed to have served its purpose when the CATs were transformed into ("brownfield") universities as a result 

of a decision of the "class-diseased" Tory Government of Douglas-Hume in 1963 (Aston, Bath, Surrey, Brunel). As

indeed much hardcore engineering education (eg HNC/HND) was also deemed to have "served its purpose" thirty

years later, again by the Tories. This event occurred in 1992 (Tory Government of Major) when some 

44 "Polytechnics" (established by the Wilson Labour Government in 1966 along with the Open University, 

Wilson's greatest legacy) were transformed into similar brownfield universities (such as Plymouth, Westminster, 

Middlesex, Bournemouth). 

Many feel very strongly that the CATs and Polys should have been retained as a distinctive form of technopreneurial tertiary

education for Britain, as in France and Germany. However the strange English snobbery deriving from the old Tory 

class-disease meant that the students had to have "bachelors degrees" and all the paraphernalia of the ancient 

universities. Nonetheless from these brownfield transformations (and the formation of new "greenfield" universities

such as Warwick, Sussex, York, East Anglia) the concept of democratic mass higher education evolved rapidly in Britain

-- with approaching 40% (over a million students) involvement today (rather than perhaps 2% in 1950). I myself prefer

the gritty brownfield universities which are also more ecologically sound!

Whilst in the short-term these brownfield transformations might perhaps have been detrimental to world-class, hardcore 

technological education for industry, many highly relevant interdisciplinary programmes for the new era were thereby created – 

in such arenas as Ecology (including Industrial Ecology) and Computer Animation. This has enervated higher education in 

the 21^st Century in a manner that was hardly imaginable in the 20^th century. The seeds for mass interdisciplinary education

were established by the Attlee Government of 1945-1951 with Young of Dartington's new Labour Manifesto of 1945. 

Plus such other ideas as Harold Wilson's "White-Heat of Technology" revolution in the 1960's, the Open university, the 

DipTech and the Polys -- and interdisciplinary project-based learning. Most of the new universities have found niche 

areas in which to be world-class to the great benefit of the overall university system in Britain. In particular there is

now a much greater sense of gritty entrepreneurship and adventure in universities in Britain compared to half a century ago.

My own ICI/DipTech student apprenticeship (1957-1961) was well conceived and imaginatively implemented on a "project

basis" in partnership between the CAT and Industry, working as effectively professional engineers from the outset. I feel

fortunate to have taken this route. After all I was from gritty Derbyshire and had spent seven long years in the classical cloisters 

of CH.Many colleagues at that time had similar interdisciplinary experiences of the DipTech providing an imaginative 

foundation for their careers. This is now exemplified in 2002 via case studies of successful industrial and entrepreneurial 

careers (one CAT colleague - also a fine rugby player for the Cobras XV - seems to have become a billionaire 

entrepreneur). Recently I have been re-visiting my own educational experience, endeavouring to place in context the 

advantages and disadvantages of these developments, in order to imagine the possible trajectories ahead for new 

technological, entrepreneurial and sustainable education and for a new vision for sustainable industries based on industrial 

ecology. Much could be now done in schools (such as CH) in this regard. It is interesting that in February 2002 

the Blair Government is addressing again "snobbery" in qualifications – via new A level/GNVQ vocational programmes 

in schools and useful initiatives of Estelle Morris.

Manufacturing research during my DipTech on rolling defects in titanium during industrial periods in Waunarlwydd, 

South Wales in the 1950's led to technical publications at ICI/IMI and direct implementation of the findings in industrial

practice which was very satisfying. In 1961 I published two journal papers on creep fracture from my DipTech project

("equal to a Research Master's thesis"). This early industrial research performance with ICI and at Birmingham 

CAT led to a scholarship from AEA Technology (1961-1964) to undertake a DPhil at Oxford on Fracture 

Mechanics. My career thereafter has been mainly in innovative technological universities around the world and I have 

always had my "right foot" in industry as a result of my student apprenticeship with ICI. Additionally my seven years 

at the charity school, Christ's Hospital engendered a focus on educational innovation, social democracy & equality and 

I have been a member of the Labour Party for most of my life. Indeed I believe that the Blair Government of 2002

is directly continuing the good work of the 1945 "Dartington Manifesto". This next decade or so seems to me to 

be the most exciting of times for Britain -- and for imaginative new ideas for sustainability in industry and a 

"sustainable society".

There is perhaps a special opportunity for this to be driven by our 80 newer universities: by interdisciplinarity and by the 

wider innovations of the genome project, climate change, globality, sustainability, ecology and virtual reality research. We have

moved on from the hardcore, disciplined "Workshop of the World" to a seemingly tolkienian and multi-disciplinary softcore 

"Virtual Workshop". And the future seems at least as optimistic, challenging (and unpredictable) as it was in 1950.

1(II) Oxford

At Oxford (1961-1964) I was a member of the newly founded St Catherine's College where the Master was the Yorkshireman 

Alan Bullock FBA and of the newly founded Department of Metallurgy where the Professor was the legendary William 

Hume-Rothery FRS. These were exciting and memorable years just as those at ICI, Birmingham CAT and CH, completing an

educational path which would have seemed pretty unlikely in 1939. My DPhil was part of an Anglo-French accord in nuclear 

research. When General de Gaulle so famously said "Non!" in January 1963 to UK membership of the "Common Market" there 

was a memorable perturbation in my research project and I discovered that my research was (unbeknown to me or my 

supervisor) directed as much at nuclear weapons development (UKAWRE) as nuclear energy (UKAEA). This further activated

my now long-standing interest in politics and technology and created a scepticism about the latent agendas in many projects. 

In fact I decided to leave Oxford and take up a physics teaching post which had been offerred to me in QVS Matavatoucou, 

Fiji. My supervisor persuaded me otherwise and accordingly I decided to quickly complete my thesis and published a series 

of papers in the generic arena of Fracture and Structural Integrity. 

My focus on the interdisciplinary research area of fracture has continued to the present time. For example, I am presenting 

a paper on "Asset Sustainability" at a fracture conference in Sicily in June 2002, organising a Forum on "Structural 

Integrity & Sustainability" at the Eleventh International Conference on Fracture (ICF11) in March 2005 and was elected 

ICF Treasurer 2001-2005 at ICF10 in Hawaii, December 2001. I appreciate the unusual opportunities that were presented and 

created, originally via Jack Longland Director of Education for Derbyshire in 1950 - and hope that I reasonably well maximmised 

these chances, which nonetheless seemed pretty choiceless at the time. I rather think that the careers/science teacher at CH

(Gordon Van Praagh and still active today) encouraged me to go directly into industry because I had a gritty northern accent –

rather than to Oxbridge, which would have been the mainstream route! I am grateful for this because I believe that to be 

self-aware one should understand and indeed embrace one's roots.

These first 25 years in Chesterfield, Sussex, London, Birmingham, Waunarlwydd and Oxford were extremely varied 

combining an experience of the grit of industry and a hardcore industrial apprenticeship with a classical education as a 

boarder at a famous public school and at an ancient university. I was active in a variety of sports at a modest level and 

developed a lifelong passion for sailing and rugby. My interests in politics, philosophy and other arenas of the humanities 

complemented well my focus on technology. CH provided an unusually balanced ("classical") education in the sciences and 

humanities as well as a focus on an independence of mind and a sense that the whole world, five continents, 

could be one's landscape. 

Stage 2: Core Work in Five Continents & Ten Countries

to be embedded in my DNA. A university research & teaching career was enticing after three years at Oxford. My family 

has been schoolteachers for many generations (teaching being DNA-embedded also perhaps). In Melbourne I was given an 

unusually free hand by Professor Max Hargeaves and Professor Hill Wesley Worner. I introduced some new ideas for 

heuristic and project-based teaching of practical engineering and thoroughly enjoyed teaching the undergraduates who were 

from New Zealand and Australia and more robust and less cerebral than English students. I also established a reasonably 

well-funded research group employing advanced electron microscopy to develop a new "synthesis" approach for understanding 

a wide range of fracture micro-mechanisms, especially for high temperature intergranular creep fracture with Robert Gifkins. 

This gained international recognition via some 20 well-cited journal publications. 

In 1967 I was invited to give a series of seminars at Boeing, GE, Stanford,Berkeley,Waterloo, McGill and in 1967-1968 

I went on sabbatical to Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India as a UGC Senior Research Fellow and established an 

Industrial Fracture Group (and studied Indian philosophy). This initiative thereafter resulted in many spin-off contributions 

and the work is still active today via several of my graduate students who are now Professors. I have remained well connected 

with India ever since and plan another sabbatical in India in 2003. I travelled a great deal at this time including Israel, Egypt, 

Iran, Nepal, Thailand, Saigon at the time of the "Tet Offensive", Singapore soon after independence from Malaysia, and

Rishikesh at the time of the Beatles. I think I decided at this time that I would like to live and work in all the various cultures,

societies and parts of the world and this ambition still endures, strongly.

In September 1968 I was appointed to a tenured "Associate Professorship of Mechanical Engineering" at the University of 

Waterloo in Canada. After four years in the southern hemisphere I sought to be part of the cutting edge culture of North 

America. These were the "sixties" when there was a special energy and optimism. I became oriented to Hinduism-Buddhism

via Jiddu Krishnamurti, Meditation & Civil Rights. I was for a couple of years the "Programme Chair" of the Waterloo Unitarian

Church. This meant that I organised and led the Sunday services each week. Mainly this involved simply leading pretty lively 

discussion meetings each week amongst a vibrant multi-cultural group - which endeavoured also to create an influence of 

liberalism and liberal rights within an interesting new community during those heady days of the "seventies".

In 1969 I was elected a Founder Member of the Council of the International Congress on Fracture (ICF) and in 1977 I 

organised the Fourth International Conference on Fracture (ICF4) ("the recognised benchmark for 

international conferences").I have been active in building ICF ever since as Vice-President (1977-1981), 

President (1981-1985) and Treasurer (1985-2005). I established a major book series on Structural Integrity with 

Pergamon-Elsevier, which ran to 45 volumes. Recently this work with ICF has involved developing an orientation within 

the ICF community to asset sustainability and condition monitoring for environmental security, especially for ICF11

in Italy in 2005. 

In 1972-3 I was promoted to full Professor of Mechanical Engineering ("the youngest full Professor of Engineering in

Canada") at Waterloo (by then the leading co-op/industrial research Faculty of Engineering in the world). This promotion was 

the rather early culmination of a major career ambition (to be a university professor). The promotion was competitive on the 

basis of my research and teaching record (with top scores in teaching performance in student analyses and about 60 journal 

papers in fracture mechanics and structural integrity which were widely cited). Research thereafter continued apace with a 

reasonably large, industry-funded group at Waterloo - on fracture maps, creep-fatigue-environmental degradation, 

superplasticity, electron microscopy, ceramics, composites and manufacturing. 

During 1970-1974 I spent two months each year on an adventurous (Trudeau inspired) Canadian Aid Programme in Cuba

at CUJAE, the Technological University in Havana, Cuba as a CUJAE Profesores Invitades -- developing manufacturing

programmes but also learning about the optimistic new society that was being created at that time by Fidel Castro. I loved 

the confident, youthful spirit in Havana. No doubt Cuba will experience a new regeneration in the 21stC. I should definitely 

like to return on another assignment, perhaps in 2004 and already . A sabbatical at Cambridge 1974-1975 with John Knott 

FRS and Mike Ashby FRS was particularly productive. I studied philosophy and educational psychology as a junior member

of King's College on a PGCE and played rugby and squash, sailed and rowed for Kings - and was a lead candle-bearer in 

the King's Carol Service! Maybe the best aspect was the Provost's discussion evenings. I also undertook research on

fracture maps and assembled my papers in a coherent form which led to a DSc from Aston Universityin 1978 

("the first earned higher doctorate at Aston University")via four volumes of collected research papers.

These fourteen years at Waterloo provided a core experience in my career and life -- and were very productive and 

fulfilling in many arenas. The University of Waterloo is now one of the leading research universities in North America,

designed as a "sustainable university"(www.uwaterloo.ca). However even with the great variety of travel whilst at the 

very exciting campus-based technological University of Waterloo I sought to move to an ancient university and older, wider 

culture. (As I said to my friend drinking coffee together in the UW labs one day: 'Are we going to go to the pearly gates and 

say, "Let me in please, I was a hard-working Professor at Waterloo for fifty years!"?'). Very few people ever left Waterloo's

Utopia and most of the colleagues that I worked with from the 1960's are still there and very happy with what is a very good 

life indeed. The (Irish-Canadian) Dean of Engineering thought I was crazy to be leaving the utopia of Waterloo and moving

to Ireland -- which at the time was very poor (graded as a Third World country by Robert McNamara, President of the 

World Bank in 1972) and in the midst of the Troubles -- especially to Catholic Ireland as an English Protestant! But as 

Nicos Kazantzakis explored, "a man must have a little madness at times -- in order to break the bonds that tie him".

Stage 2(II) Ireland, California, South Africa, Pimlico,

New York/NJ, Singapore

In 1982 (after a further sabbatical in Houston, Texas setting up a Structural Integrity Centre, 1978-1979 -- from which 

association also came ICF7 in Houston in 1989) I was appointed as Professor of Engineering Science and Head of a newly

established Department of Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering at the University of Dublin (Trinity College). 

This next decade was serendipitously an astonishing and unexpected time of energy and change in Dublin - just as the

previous decade had been in Waterloo. The change in culture was enervating and I learnt much about Joyce, Yeats, 

Beckett, Murdoch, Kennelly, Heaney and the imaginative life of Dublin in a very fulfilling way - justifying well my move to

Trinity, against the advice of my Waterloo Dean. During 1982-1991 I introduced new, practical and accredited courses

plus industrial research based on European research consortia and built a very successful Department, modelled in several

respects on the entrepreneurship of Waterloo. The Department was thus evolved from the mathematical based degrees of 

Trinity dating from 1841 in Engineering Science towards practical manufacturing technology and especially towards industrial 

enterprise.

In 1987-1988 I undertook a research sabbatical at the University of California, Santa Barbara working on an ARPA project 

on lightweight metal-matrix composites with Tony Evans FRS. This directly resulted in one of the first EC/EU major industrial

projects (BRITE) in Ireland. My overall objective at Trinity was for my new Department to act as a dynamo 

("a Celtic Tiger Cub")for industrial development in Ireland -- as Waterloo had achieved in Ontario. This goal 

was substantially accomplished as indeed the later technopreneurial evolution of the Department and of Industry in

Ireland has demonstrated (www.tcd.ie).This work was not without some "pain" with the various competing cultural

"waves" -- sailing also against the prevailing tide. After a decade and at 52yrs I took pensioned retirement as a Professor – 

and was also elected an Emeritus Fellow for life of Trinity.

These twenty-seven years (1964-1991) in Australia, India, Canada, Cuba, USA and Ireland were extremely satisfying.

There were many flaws in my navigation of these years but overall there were many fulfillments and a certain sense that 

I had self-remembered the "CH Leaving Charge" and endeavoured to navigate an interesting and worthwhile life path.

From about 1970, nonetheless, I was increasingly convinced that my career was not quite as self-directed as I had imagined, 

nor perhaps optimally in accord with my core nature. I became involved in politics and religion. In 1974 I began 

training as a psychoanalyst in London with the distinguished Freudian, Paula Heimann who had trained under Theodor 

Reik in Berlin before moving to London in 1933 where she trained under Melanie Klein. After about six months of 

psychoanalytic training I became "re-directed" due partly to the untoward self-indulgence of psychoanalysis (as I 

perceived via R D Laing). I felt that it was probably more worthwhile continuing to work in Universities -- in an 

increasingly broadening way (eg in the development of "Integrated Studies" at Waterloo) rather than becoming a 

"lay-psychoanalyst". Yet this was a valuable additional dimension within my career -- which I like to believe has also

added to my own self-awareness, understanding and empathy substantially. 

From about 1990 I felt it was time to return for a while to my original roots in England. I expected, as many did,

a Labour victory in the 1992 General Election and a new era in politics after the long Thatcher Era. But this was 

not to be. It was May 1997 before the "Blair-Brown" Government superseded "Major-Thatcher". To me the New

Labour Government (for all its compromises and my own roots in Old Labour) is an important fulfillment of a social 

and optimistic vision of social equality and innovation for the 21stC. There is much to accomplish for Britain in the 

next two or three decades. I seek to be part of this work, albeit at the grassroots in personal research and at

community level -- and simply as an interested and participating observer.

In 1992 I was appointed as "SIEBE Professor" to lead a new School of Materials, Manufacturing & Mechanical 

Engineering at Plymouth University (newly transformed from a polytechnic) with a mission to be a catalyst for regional

technopreneurial and sustainable growth.SIEBE was at the time the largest engineering company in the UK with a 

strong presence in Plymouth. Sir Barry Stephens, Chairman & CEO of SIEBE, rendered great assistance in building

the new School. Undergraduate numbers in the School were doubled via new, practical courses and research activity

in the School was increased by an order of magnitude (involving three new EU BRITE projects and a new DTI

"Teaching Company Centre") providing a quality, industry-led, European strategy.

Following the end of apartheid in South Africa and the election of Nelson Mandela as President I developed a productive

collaboration with some of the "Technikons" and developed some collaborative programmes in co-operative education. 

In 1994-95 I accepted an additional senior consulting post in the School of Materials at the University of Birmingham

with the specific task of enhancing research in ceramics manufacturing (the Department gained the top 5* rating) and 

creating research links with Plymouth. I also became involved in promoting and consulting on the ‘Framework 

Programs’ of the European Union involving work with the DTI and the Institute of European Trade and Technology.

These three years in Plymouth with all the stresses associated with transforming a culture from a "polytechnic" to a

"university" (my predecessor at Plymouth took early retirement at 52yrs feeling that this task was too daunting) were 

not without some "academic storms". However, my personal "ship" was reasonably well found after the varied seas 

of Waterloo and Dublin. The main difficulty was the chasm in the ambition of the University and the very modest ambition 

of most of the staff from the old polytechnic culture, who enjoyed their relaxed recreational life with long holidays and 

short working weeks in an area of outstanding natural beauty with some of the best sailing and recreational features in Europe. 

However a good deal was accomplished, which has endured well and is now evolving pretty well in 2002.

In 1995 I was appointed to the central leadership team of a new technological university -- as University Director of 

Research ("PVC-Research") at the University of North London (UNL). I continued my links in the Southwest as 

"Honorary Professor of Environmental Science" at the University of Plymouth for 1995-1998 working in 

"Green/Sustainable Materials". At UNL I was principally concerned with the 1996 Research Assessment Exercise and 

achieved a 33% increase in the 1992 average researcher score. I initiated an integrated Research and Graduate Studies 

culture and strategy with a "capability" focus. I was perhaps ahead of events in advocating a unification of research 

on a technopreneuruial basis with the various newer universities in North London and creating a Technopolis. However 

with the formation via merger of UNL and LGU of the London Metropolitan University in 2002 and other potential

mergers this concept is now evolving. I had the pleasure of living in a flat in Pimlico during this time, still in many ways 

my favourite place of all.

In 1996 I moved to Exxon Corporate Research, New Jersey, USA on an extended consulting assignment working on 

plant condition monitoring and asset sustainability. I had been offerred a major appointment at Exxon some years earlier 

(1987) which I declined (not wanting to become "Exxon Man") but ever since I have maintained good links with 

Exxon Corporate Research. My most recent consulting assignment at(now) ExxonMobil was in May 2001 on 

"Asset Sustainability". My overall approach to sustainability did not find complete accord with the ExxonMobil culture but 

this is evolving and it does find productive engagement with Shell and BPAmoco - as well as with other manufacturing iindustries.

My move to Exxon created many unexpected opportunities and in 1997 I was appointed as"Professor of Sustainable 

Manufacturing" at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU). I worked for nearly three years in the 

Global Technopolis created by Lee Kwan Yue and thoroughly enjoyed this experience. NTU work encompassed teaching a 

new course in "Sustainable Materials & Manufacturing" and a range of research projects in sustainable manufacturing and 

"lightweighting" (e.g. on “Precision Processing of Ultra Light Alloys and Composites for the Microelectronics Industries

in Singapore”). This was closely focussed via directed central policies to enhance Singapore’s (already first-ranked) 

sustainable competitiveness. Good spin-offs in industrial enterprises arose in magnesium technology for the microelectronics

industries.

I was a Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting "Professor of Engineering Design for Sustainable Development"

at City University London on a six month leave from NTU during March-September 1998 developing new teaching 

case studies in Industrial Ecology and projects in lightweighting and life-cycling via magnesium. This work transferred

to Brunel University and I was a Professorial Associate in the Faculty of Technology at Brunel from 1999 with good links to

the present time. Brunel is one of the original CATs which has maintained the ethos of the CAT-vision with Industry. 

I particularly appreciate this association.

Stage 3: Recycling & Regeneration: The Best Years?

Sustainability. Since 1968 I had always had in mind returning to work in Australia and had also been interested in the 

challenges of being a "Dean of Engineering" - especially after seeing Archie Sherbourne in action in Waterloo in the 1960's. 

At CQU I established a new "School of Industrial Ecology and the Built Environment" (SIEBE), a new initiative in 

"Process Engineering and Light Metals" (PELM) and in "Sustainable Product Integrated Engineering" (SPINE). 

Central, Tropical Queensland is a very special part of rural Australia but a good deal was accomplished in a short time 

especially with heavy industry. On leaving CQU I was appointed "CQU Honorary Professor of Industrial Ecology"

and "Adjunct Professor of Asset Sustainability" at QUT.The CQU Faculty has continued to evolve pretty well along the lines 

I established as "Foundation Dean" (www.cqu.edu.au). My work in Queensland continues and I am involved in the bid 

(July 2002) for a Cooperative Research Centre in "Integrated Asset Management" (CIAM) based at QUT -- and in establishing

a CIAM multidisciplinary research programme in "Asset Sustainability"

In February 2002 I was appointed as a Visiting Professor in the new "Environmental Research Institute" of 

University College Cork and moved back to my base in Plymouth in a continuing semi-retired recycling and 

regenerating mode, continuing also with a range of Visiting Professorships and new projects. 

I have undertaken most of the senior management tasks in universities (except Vice-Chancellor/University President – 

that goal eluded me several times -- although I did reach the final short-lists for VC on three occasions - in Ireland, Hongkong 

and Jamaica). At this stage in my career I am focussing on developing the research arena of "Asset Sustainability"

andIndustrial Process Ecology within Materials, Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering. I have published a series 

of papers during 2000-2002 on simulation and modelling to address the thesis "sustainability pays" -- with 

Trevor Spedding (Greenwich University) and Khoo Hsien Hui (Nanyang Technological University/

National University of Singapore) -- as a foundation for this work for thhe next decade or so. My talents are 

recognised as innovative & quality teaching, strategic thinking, committed teamwork and a creative approach to deliver 

pragmatic research solutions in engineering, coupled with an effective international network. Currently I divide my time 

between Europe and Australia. I have published over 250 journal papers and edited some 45 books. 

Additionally I have been involved in a range of community services including several years as a non-Executive Director in the 

NHS of the South & West Devon Health Authority and of the Devon Family Health Services Authority; Chair of the Wembury 

Branch of the Labour Party; School Governor; PTA Chair. For forty years I have been active in sailing and I am a member of

the Royal Western Yacht Club and of the Irish Cruising Club: dinghy racing (Fireball, 505, FD, World Albacore Championships),

cruising and cruiser racing (Wye Cup, Nicholson 35). I played rugby for 25 years in England, Australia and Canada, including 

Cobras 1st XV, rowed (College VIII), played squash (College Team) and chess (Captain in Birmingham CAT).Poetry 

has been an important part of my life, mainly through the inspiration of Robert Graves.

Above all the most worthwhile and primary feature of my life has been, and is today, my family and friends -- but that is another 

story for a different much more personal document. As explored in this Narrative, I view life as broadly in three stages:

Stage 1 (0-25/30yrs, early life to maturity), Stage 2 (25/30-55/60yrs, family and core career), Stage 3 (55/60-80/90yrs, 

the most challenging and potentially the most fulfilling stage of life). It seems to me important to engage with the third stage 

at a point when one's inner drive is still high. 

I began my own "Stage 3" essentially when I retired from TCD in 1992 at 53yrs but more realistically from 1999 at 60yrs – 

and this period has already been very varied and interesting. There seems to be much promise ahead. Of course I hope to live

(with my faculties intact) until I am 90yrs or more. From about then I shall be hoping that my Children, Grandchildren (and 

even Great-Grandchildren) are taking me out on "Old-Feller-Treats" to see the latest Tolkien and Ten Nations Rugby (OFTs

already occur indeed -- in a manner that warms the deepest cockles of my heart).

-------------------------------------------------

Some_Recent_Papers

Earlier_Exemplar_Papers

July 2002