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Sophie Parsons

Investigator Dr Sophie Parsons

Sophie is a Chartered Engineer (CEng) and a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals, and Mining (MIMMM). She received her BEng and PhD (Eng) from Queen Mary College, University of London in Materials Science & Engineering. After a post-doctoral research post at Queen Mary’s, she joined LGC Forensics, UK, as a Forensic Chemist, specialising in the examination of textile fibres and polyurethane foam retrieved from crime scenes. During this time, Sophie analysed trace evidence, prepared detailed technical reports for court and presented evidence in court as a Court Reporting Officer. Following her arrival in Hong Kong, Sophie worked as a Research Fellow at City University, Kowloon Tong, developing techniques for analysing trace material evidence in crime laboratories. In 2012, Sophie joined Hawkins’ Hong Kong Office, and has since provided expertise in materials failure analysis and corrosion incidents in both the marine and land-based sectors. As a materials engineer, Sophie has conducted investigations involving the failure/corrosion of glass, ceramic, plastic and metal, and is particularly experienced at investigating lift and wire rope failures and criminal work involving trace evidence. On the marine side, Sophie is highly competent at conducting investigations involving the failure of marine coating, the liquefaction of Group […]

Nico Zurcher

Investigator Nico Zurcher

Prior to becoming an investigator, Nico worked in a international environmental consultancy where he was involved in a number of major government marine projects in Hong Kong, as well as oil and gas, and mining projects around Asia. In 2011 he joined HFS-Asia in Hong Kong, where he worked as a fire investigator and consulting scientist. In 2015, Nico moved to London where he joined Hawkins to bolster our growing International and Shipping Incidents team. He continued investigating a broad range of land-based and marine incidents, both in the UK and internationally. He was also a member of our contamination team, taking on cases in the UK and Europe. Hawkins acquired HFS-Asia in 2016 and in 2020 Nico returned to Hong Kong to head the office he helped to build several years earlier. Nico has investigated several fires in large industrial plants, as well as in commercial and residential premises. On the marine side, he has investigated major fires on container and general cargo vessels. He has worked on numerous cases of bulk cargo spoilage, involving grains, oil seeds and seedcake. Nico has also worked on cases involving the carriage and storage of mixed chemical cargoes, and the contamination of […]

Hugh Martindale

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Hugh is a Chartered Engineer with the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. He has degrees in Architecture and Mechanical Engineering with Business Finance, and a Mechanical Engineering PhD from University College London (UCL) on the behaviour of flexible pipe tensile armour in the region of an end fitting.

Raymond Marr

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Ray is experienced in acoustic calculations, measurements and acoustic study in HVAC design for architects and construction companies to identify potential issues and help design solutions which create a comfortable and safe environment.

Christina Higgins

Investigator Christina Higgins

Christina Higgins – Engineer, researcher, musician. With expertise in acoustics and a decade’s experience, she innovates in indoor air quality measurement. Skilled in building acoustics, noise assessment, and environmental analysis, her passion drives healthier spaces.

Thomas Leyland

Thomas Leyland

Thomas graduated with a Master of Engineering degree from the University of Cambridge in 2011 having studied a broad range of engineering disciplines for the initial 2 years.

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 […]

Sam A’Court

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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.

Tony Stacey

Investigator Tony Stacey

Tony brings with him a wealth of knowledge of the Speech Transmission Index (STI) method for assessing speech intelligibility and has published papers addressing the STI-PA (Public Address) measurement system, as well as the problems associated with the diverse ways that a space can be classified as passing or failing the intelligibility targets of different standards.

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.