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Hawkins Welcomes Materials Engineer Virginie Landais

Virginie Landais News Image

Hawkins is delighted to welcome Virginie Landais to our expanding team of materials experts. Virginie brings extensive experience in materials characterisation, particularly degradation and failure mechanisms.

Virginie Landais

Dr Viginie Landais

Virginie is a materials engineer with a strong and diverse experience in materials characterisation, especially degradation and failure mechanisms. Her first role was based at NIST, a US federal research centre, where she monitored the ageing of ballistic polymer fibres. Using FTIR (Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy), tensile testing and ballistic testing, she compared the performance of high-strength polymer fibres from used body armours to samples aged in the laboratory. Later, she investigated the failure of various aircraft components for Airbus UK. This work ranged from the in-service failure analysis of large-scale corroded components to the fatigue analysis of test parts, including metallurgical and fractographic examination. To study this topic further, she enrolled in a PhD program within the University of Manchester, where she analysed the environmentally assisted failure of high-strength aerospace aluminium alloys. This project involved the multiscale characterisation of brittle fractures combining X-Ray tomography and SEM-based chemical and crystallographic analysis, with the addition of hydrogen measurements using glow-discharge optical emission spectroscopy (GDOES). Returning to industry, she joined Bentley UK to examine the degradation of a wide range of organic and inorganic materials. Besides the failure investigation of parts from customer’s vehicles or from the production line, she also helped develop […]

Causes of Germination Failure in Cereal Crops – Part 2: Soil and Sowing

James Townsend explores the factors influencing germination failure in cereal crops. This part 2 highlights how soil type, previous crops, sowing depth, density, timing, temperature, and post-sowing weather conditions all play crucial roles in crop establishment. Part 1 discussed the importance of seed quality and part 3 focuses on pests and diseases.

Sam A’Court

Sam Acourt website profile picture

Sam has wealth of hands-on experience in the design, operation, maintenance, and modification of a wide range of process, utility, and safety systems, encompassing separation, heat exchange, produced water treatment, relief systems, and gas dehydration.

Bristol Series – Corrosion in the Power Industry

Corrosion at a power plant

Giuseppe will focus on two widespread corrosion mechanisms that routinely lead to large BI claims in the power industry: Corrosion Under Insulation, and Microbiologically Induced Corrosion. He will discuss what causes these degradation mechanisms, as well as how to recognise and prevent them.

Hawkins Webinars: The Bristol Series

Hawkins Bristol Webinar Series

For our latest series of webinars, our experts from the Bristol office have come together to create a series of presentations ranging from deliberate fire setting to the failure of push-fit fittings. Find out more about each webinar below and click the button to register. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER Hybrid Concrete Frame Design Presented by Tim HodsonThursday 26th October 2023 at 9.30am BST Tim will provide an introduction into hybrid concrete construction (HCC). He will discuss the various hybrid solutions, then focus on the design of twin-wall and precast columns, along with some of the challenges they can bring. Chariots on Fire: Common Causes of Vehicle Fires Presented by Luke CollinsThursday 2nd November 2023 at 9.30am GMT Luke will be discussing vehicle fires which involve combustible fluids and materials, as well as other causes such as mechanical failure, electrical faults and frictional heating. Push-fit Fittings & Statistical Analysis Presented by Gerald DeshaisThursday 9th November 2023 at 9.30am GMT Gerald will discuss examples where Hawkins has investigated escapes of water caused by a fault in a push-fit fitting, and how laboratory inspection can be conducted to generate data that allows us to compare the characteristics of exhibit and exemplar fittings, in order […]

Causes of Germination Failure in Cereal Crops – Part 1: The Importance of Seed Quality

Crop germination failure

Germination failure in cereal crops can lead to significant financial losses for farmers, encompassing not only the cost of seeds but also expenses related to field preparations, pesticides, sowing, resowing, and machinery. Additionally, poor seed quality, storage conditions, and the presence of pests and fungi can contribute to lower germination rates, highlighting the critical importance of seed quality control and proper storage practices in crop management.

Benedict Barron

Investigator Ben Barron

Originally from London, Ben undertook a Master’s degree in Chemistry at the University of Bristol and was awarded first degree honours. This was followed by the completion of a PhD in Chemistry hosted internationally between Imperial College, London, and the University of Hong Kong. This work focussed on asymmetric Michael type reactions and methodologies in organic chemistry. On completion of his PhD, Ben joined a contract research organisation, Domainex, as a synthetic chemist and worked here for just under two years. After this, he moved to GSK and spent 4 years working as a process chemist. Here he worked on route optimisation and scale up activities for multiple pharmaceutical assets, supporting large scale (up to 70 kg) manufacturing campaigns. Additionally, he took an interest in safety roles within the process chemistry department, gaining valuable insight into safety management, matrices and procedure in a pharmaceutical environment. This ranged from Gemba and Management Monitoring activities, conduction and review of genotoxic risk assessments and volunteering asa first responder to chemical incidences and emergencies.