Brunel’s Professor Brian Cantor is today named one of 90 exceptional researchers worldwide to be elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of sciences.
Prof Cantor is a consultant at Brunel Centre for Advanced Solidification Technology and invented ‘Cantor Alloys’ — high-entropy alloys with many potential uses such as for aero engine parts, radiation resistant components and wear resistant coatings. Recently he set up the UN Research Centre for Circular Materials, an international centre for excellence and a major win for BCAST.
“It’s a vindication of my decision to go back to being a full-time scientist,” said Prof Cantor, who joined Brunel after nearly 20 years in University management.
“I feel incredibly honoured and privileged to be elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society, the previous home of great scientists such as Newton and Darwin. I owe a lot to all my colleagues at BCAST and Brunel who provided me with a great place to rebuild my scientific career in recent years. I want to thank them all.”
Prof Cantor, 76, lives in Hebden Bridge where his wife runs a café. He travels down to Brunel to work during the week. He spent 20 years as an academic at Oxford studying manufacture, structure and properties of materials, working with many multinationals worldwide. In the late 1990s, he ran one of the biggest research groups in Oxford before spending nearly 20 years in senior university management, as Vice-Chancellor at York then Bradford.
Noted for their invaluable contributions to science, the Royal Society’s elected Fellows are leaders in their fields. Drawn from across academia, industry and wider society, the new intake spans achievements varying from treatments for Huntington’s Disease and developing the first algorithm for video streaming to new insights into memory formation and the origins and evolution of our universe.
“I am pleased to welcome such an outstanding group into the Fellowship of the Royal Society,” said Royal Society President Sir Adrian Smith.
“This new cohort have already made significant contributions to our understanding of the and continue to push the boundaries of possibility in academic research and industry. From visualising the sharp rise in global temperatures since the industrial revolution to leading the response to the Covid-19 pandemic, their diverse range of expertise is furthering human understanding and helping to address some of our greatest challenges.
“It is an honour to have them join the Fellowship.”