Our people
The University of Manchester at Harwell (UoMaH) team is led by Director, Professor Neil Bourne.
Our group consists of a core technical team, Professional Services staff and researchers.
Job title
Dr Michael Baker
Michael is a Research Fellow in physical chemistry and is based in Manchester. He is interested in the application of X-ray and neutron spectroscopies to study the role of metal ion active sites in biology and in functional magnetic materials.
Sarah Batts
Sarah is our Senior Administrative Assistant and Neil Bourne’s PA. She is the first point of contact for enquiries and visitors to UoMaH. Sarah is inspired by science and has long experience working for the University.
Professor Neil Bourne
Neil is Professor of Matter in Extreme Environments and is the Director of UoMaH. Neil is also a Co-director of the University’s Thomas Ashton Institute.
Dr David Eastwood
David is a Research Fellow dealing with safety and the mitigation of and response to risk. He is particularly interested in probing energetic and reactive materials such as batteries and catalysts using X-ray imaging and in situ synchrotron techniques.
Dr Simon Hunt
Simon is a Presidential Academic Research Fellow in the Department of Materials. His main research interests are understanding the behaviour and evolution of the deep Earth which he does by performing high-pressure material property measurements. He also has an interest in in-situ synchrotron techniques.
Dr Kun Yan
Kun is a lecturer in metallurgy affiliated to the Department of Materials based in Manchester. Her research focus areas include characterisation and modelling of damage formation in multi-phase engineering materials, as well as enhancing engineering materials performance via thermal-mechanical processing.
Dr Aneeqa Khan
Aneeqa Khan is a Research Fellow in nuclear fusion. Her research is focused on testing materials and components for nuclear fusion applications.
Dr Fabien Leonard
Fabien is our Data Analysis Manager. His primary role is to lead in the development of data analysis and visualisation methods for 3D X-ray and neutron imaging data sets.
Dr Lin Ma
Lin is a research fellow in subsurface energy based in Manchester. She applies multi-scale 3D/4D imaging and characterisation methods to rocks and other porous media to study the microstructure and pore system in varied conditions (e.g. temperature, pressure, chemical and flows).
Steph Masoni
Steph is our Deputy Operations Manager. Her primary role is project management to support delivery of joint projects between The University of Manchester and Harwell Science Innovation Campus. She has more than five years’ experience working at Harwell.
Dr Wajira Mirihanage
Wajira is a Diamond-Manchester Fellow affiliated to the Department of Materials and is based in Manchester. His main research interests are focused on solidification microstructure and defect evolution in metallic alloys during casting, welding and additive manufacturing processes. Most of his current synchrotron X-ray work is focused on application of time resolved characterisation.
Dr Tingting Mu
Tingting is a Lecturer in the Department of Computer Science and a Visiting Scientist of the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC). She is interested in developing advanced mathematical modelling and optimisation techniques for machine learning and its AI applications relevant to image, language and speech understanding, as well as data analytics in science, engineering and medical / health domains.
Dr Sara Nonni
Sara is an Experimental Officer supporting facility users from across Manchester during their experiments at Harwell. She is the main operator of our Nikon X-ray machine and can perform scans of samples upon request. With a doctorate in radiocarbon dating, Sara has a particular interest in the study of historic artefacts.
Dr Christopher Parlett
Christopher is a Research Fellow in catalysis. He employs operando x-ray spectroscopic techniques to assist in the elucidation of catalytically active sites, aiding the design and development of novel catalytic nanomaterials.
Dr Cameron Price
Cameron’s research focuses on developing novel catalysts to achieve the valorisation of hexoses to value-added chemicals, such as fuels and monomers, with the aim of reducing humin formation by considered catalyst design for cascade processes.
Ben Rollings
Ben is a Mechanical Development Engineer assisting Manchester users with mechanical design and automation of experimental setups. Previously, Ben worked for Oxford Space Systems designing and building deployable spacecraft having studied Aerospace Engineering followed by Space Science and Engineering.