Colin Scrivener worked for Rolls-Royce from 1967, until retirement in June 2006, and then as a consultant to the company for 12 years. Initially in compressors, he contributed to the aerodynamic development of the high bypass ratio fan for the RB211-524 engine.
His major contribution to Rolls-Royce has been in turbine technology. After joining the turbine group in 1978, progressing to Head of Turbine Engineering in 1992, with a team of 300 aero-thermal, mechanical and design staff responsible for turbines for the whole company. This team produced turbine designs for the Trent and EJ200 aero engines, and the variable turbine for the WR21 marine engine. Colin also supported turbine engineering at Rolls-Royce sites in Germany and Montreal. Subsequently he was Head of Technology responsible for the generic aerodynamic, mechanical and design methods and then IT Director for Aerospace Engineering, with responsibility for the IT strategy for about 450 people and an IT budget of £3M.
He was instrumental in the move from main-frame Cray super computers to distributed servers. From 1997 Colin was responsible across the whole of Rolls-Royce for the professional leadership and career development of engineers in the aerothermal area (fluid dynamics and thermodynamics). He has played an active role in ASME, the IMechE and the European Turbomachinery Conference and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2006.
Since 1996 he has been a member of the Editorial Board the IMechE Journal of Power and Energy, and was Editor from 2002 to 2006. In retirement he spend some time mentoring PhD students at Cambridge and Oxford University.