The third lecture in this series of colloquia from The University of Manchester at Harwell (UoMaH) will be presented by Professor Neil Bourne, Director of UoMaH. The lecture will be followed by a buffet to promote further discussion and meet the UoMaH team.

Living to the limits; ageing well.

The term exposome (development of the genome) is used in occupational health to define the state of an individual after experiencing all the exposures in a lifetime and how those exposures then relate to health. I will talk about constructing an exposome for the materials from which we build components. From these we can better construct structures for extreme environments and so ensure the health of the inanimate world around us.

People and structures live life to full; sometimes dangerously. Yet over time, some lose strength and the ability to respond to changing environments. The genome and the blueprint supply structures and systems that fulfil a purpose, however neither fully account for the effects of different stresses and environments on their development. Those we build and use are composed of specified components containing a range of materials that we hope will do a job. Yet while we worry about growing old, we rarely consider matter or structures evolving in time and in changing environments, and this can sometimes lead to nasty surprises as they fail under load. I suggest we not only need a new way of thinking about matter across thermodynamic space, but also in the way we organise science to design and care for structures to ensure their resilience from cradle to grave.

Event schedule

15:00-16:00 Professor Neil Bourne's lecture

16:00-16:20 Questions from the audience

16:20-17:00 Buffet and drinks while networking and posters from the University of Manchester at Harwell (R.22 coffee lounge).

Background on Neil Bourne

Neil Bourne is by training a physical scientist, by inclination a communicator, and always a champion for both his specialist areas and the wider fields of safety that they serve. He has extended his expertise over recent years into the areas of risk, occupational health and workplace stress, working within universities and government as an educator, an advisor and now as the leader, of National and International Institutes in Health and Safety and National Facilities Science using X rays, neutrons, lasers and supercomputing. These are pushing the boundaries of national science and training the next generation of researchers.

He obtained his degree, masters, PhD and ScD in Natural Sciences (Physics) at the University of Cambridge, was elected to fellowships (and served as Director of Studies for Natural Sciences) at Magdalene and Clare Hall Colleges, and established the first Shock Science facilities in the UK. Since leaving the Cavendish Laboratory he has held chairs and visiting chairs at the University of Manchester, Imperial College London, Cranfield University and has associations with many national laboratories and universities internationally. He has published nearly 400 papers, commentaries and reviews in publications from the British Journal of Surgery to Nature Physics, and a book uniting the physical and engineering science of matter in extremes. He has been elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society and chaired its International Division devoted to Extreme Physics. He also holds fellowships from the Institute of Physics, the Institute of Materials, is a Chartered Engineer and a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, championing experiential pedagogy across his core areas of work. He has received many awards including the Paul A. Siple Memorial Medal for Achievement in the US. He is an editor of the Journal of Dynamic Behaviour of Materials and is in the process of founding a new journal, Safety in Extreme Environments; People, Risk and Security.

Over the last decade he has worked within government to regenerate university research and break down boundaries in critical priority areas. In this role, as Distinguished Scientist, he was UK Technical Authority in Shock and Detonation and worked to train a new workforce for the nuclear sectors. During this period he worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory in the US, with which is still actively working and to which he returns every year. Since returning to academia he has established, launched, and is the inaugural director of the University of Manchester at Harwell, uniting UoM, the Diamond Light Source (DLS), The Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) and the Research Complex at Harwell (RCaH), a portal to the wider Harwell Campus. He also is the inaugural UoM director of The Thomas Ashton Institute, partnering the University and the Health and Safety Executive, that aims to deliver research, learning and regulatory insight to enable a better working world. Across these areas Neil leads a team of physical scientists, engineers, medics, psychologists, clinicians and risk analysts working to reduce accident in work and generate impactful, world-class research. He still pursues study into the responses of matter under demanding or extreme conditions of loading (mechanical, chemical, radiation or extreme temperatures), investigating the operating mechanisms that define response across scales from atoms to planets, and serves on panels assuring national science and on industrial boards advising on their research areas. These include the Science Engineering and Evidence Assurance Committee of the HSE board, The Oil and Gas Technology Centre Academic Panel, advisory committees on energetic materials and extreme events for the government and reinsurance sectors amongst others.

Colloquium: Living to the limits; ageing well.