David Knowles

David Michael Knowles is Professor of Nuclear Engineering at the University of Bristol and Chief Executive Officer of the UK's Henry Royce Institute for advanced materials research. From 2016 to 2019, he was the co-director of the South West Nuclear Hub, and Atkins Fellow. His research and consultancy work focusses primarily on understanding and modelling the degradation mechanisms in metallic materials and their interrelation with the structural integrity of rotating and static equipment in the energy sector.

Education Knowles was educated at Toller Porcorum primary school, Beaminster School and St Catharine's College, Cambridge, graduating from the university in 1988, with triple first class honours in natural sciences (taking Materials Science and Metallurgy in Part II). He then went on to complete a PhD in 1991 - on the topic of the fatigue and fracture behaviour of aluminium-lithium based composites - under the supervision of Dr Julia King (now Baroness Brown of Cambridge). In 2001 Knowles returned to New Zealand to take up the role of CTO at MPT Solutions, where he continued to publish academic papers with a developing interest in crystal plasticity. In 2006 he was appointed Global Research Leader for Materials at Shell Global Solutions, based in Amsterdam looking into materials for LNG and gas to liquid technologies. In 2010, he moved to Atkins as their materials authority in the energy sector, focussing on offshore wind turbine foundations and nuclear Advanced Gas Reactors. working with a number of university partners alongside EDF and UKAEA, which is focussed on characterising and modelling the meso to macro scale mechanics of alloys. In particular, he is interested in researching the use of data-centric methods to interrogate and describe material mechanical behaviour which can then be used to predict the condition of components of nuclear power plants.

In 2024 Knowles instigated and oversaw the development of a National Materials Innovation Strategy, establishing a Materials Leadership Group under the Chair of Allan Cook to support wide engagement across the industrial and academic research community in the UK. Over 2000 researchers were consulted from over 270 companies and the strategy was published in January 2025 with wide media coverage

Awards and recognition Knowles was awarded a Fellowship of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (FIMMM) in 2004 in recognition of his contributions to the field of materials science. In 2015, he was also made Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng). - and gives numerous invited lectures and conference keynotes each year