Steel researchers from the UK and China Gather at Harwell Event

Scientists, engineers, technologists and industry leaders from China and the UK have met at Oxfordshire’s Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) to discuss and exchange the recent advances in the research of materials science and engineering.

The two day conference covers the 3rd UK-China Steel Research Forum and the 15th Biennial Conference of Chinese Materials Association on Materials Science and Engineering. It has been held at STFC’s Rutherford Appleton Laboratory at Harwell Oxford. The focus is particularly on steel research and development in the UK and China, and provides a unique opportunity for academic institutions and industrial companies to foster research collaborations between the two countries.

Welcoming the visitors to STFC at Harwell Oxford, Andrew Taylor, Executive Director of STFC National Laboratories which includes the ISIS neutron and muon facility at RAL, said, “STFC is really the ‘mega science’ research council – the big kit, big instrument research council and our work is global. One of the things the UK has done effectively is taken the technology behind these big facilities and big science and translated it into small science, trying to understand the world around us at the atomic and molecular level. China is going to have an ISIS-like facility and, inspired by the things we can do together, I look forward to further collaboration between China and the UK in the future.”

The conference was jointly organised by steel researchers from the UK and China, with support from industry leaders, steel research institutions and research funding bodies from the UK and China.