Richard Johnston

Dr. Richard Johnston is an Associate Professor in the Materials Research Centre, Swansea University, a 2013 British Science Association Media Fellow (based at Nature), and a 2015 Software Sustainability Institute Fellow.

Embracing a multidisciplinary approach, Richard's research has taken him from artificial intelligence in manufacturing, through gas turbine materials (abradables, nickel superalloys, ceramic matrix composites), and on to X-ray microtomography. He leads the X-ray Imaging group at Swansea, and chairs the Swansea University Research Forum (SURF) Executive Group. He is also Co-Director of the Materials Academy, in addition to devising the #ResearchAsArt Awards and PI of the outreach and engagement programme Materials: Live.

Research grant capture as PI or Co-I of over £20Million since 2014, and is Co-Director of the £10M EPSRC/WG-funded Advanced Imaging of Materials (AIM) facility. Richard is an advocate of collaboration, and a champion of public engagement with research.

Richard has written for Nature, Scientific American, The Guardian, Huffington Post, and has worked on TV documentaries with the BBC (Rhys Jones’ Wildlife Patrol) and Horizon (Animal Mummies).