Professor David Nowell studied engineering at the University of Cambridge and followed this by a one year postgraduate course in production methods in management. Later he studied for a doctorate (in fretting fatigue) at Oxford.
David’s working career started as a graduate trainee in the rail industry, but he has spent most of his life in engineering education and research at the University of Oxford and, since 2017 at Imperial College.
At Oxford, he was a university lecturer and college tutor for nearly 30 years and taught a range of subjects, including engineering and society topics. He also spent two years as senior tutor in his college (Christ Church), helping to define educational policy as well as working with students with academic and pastoral issues. David was a trustee of his college between 1988 and 2017 and served on both the finance committee and investment group.
David’s research activity has been in structural integrity and he has worked extensively in collaboration with industry, particularly with Rolls-Royce plc. He was director of the University Technology Centre in Solid Mechanics at Oxford between 1999 and 2009, and is currently director of the similar UTC in Vibrations at Imperial. He has published widely in the engineering literature and is currently Editor of the former IMechE Journal of Strain Analysis for Engineering Design. David is also on the editorial boards of the International Journal of Fatigue and of the Journal Strain.
David joined the IMechE in 1983 and was elected as a Fellow in 2000. He is also a Fellow of the Institute for Materials, Minerals and Mining and of Advance HE (formerly the Higher Education Academy). David is active in consultancy work, and served as an Assessor for the Kilmore East/Kinglake Bushfire class action in Australia in 2013.
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