John Campbell is Emeritus Professor of Casting Technology in the Department of Metallurgy and Materials.
He has published over 200 papers in scientific journals, and is author of several casting textbooks including “Castings” 1991, 2nd Edition 2003, “Castings Practice – The 10 Rules of Casting” 2004, “Complete Casting Handbook” 2011, all published by Elsevier, and “Concise Castings” 2010 published by the American Foundry Society.
He is well known for his day-long training courses and workshops, and spends much of his time on the shop floor of foundries getting castings right.
John’s first degree from Cambridge specialised in physics and metallurgy, and this training was consolidated by the Masters course in Physical Metallurgy at Sheffield University. His PhD at Birmingham researched the origin of porosity in cast metals, particularly cast turbine blades, which were only just beginning to be accepted at that time.
He started work in the steel industry, but later moved to foundry work, being responsible for the development and management of the Cosworth Casting Process which at that time was revolutionary in its use of counter-gravity filling of precision sand moulds using an electromagnetic pump for the liquid aluminium alloy.
He since worked in the USA assisting to set up Alotech Inc, a light alloy foundry using the revolutionary new ‘Ablation Casting Process’ in which the highest cooling rates achievable create the highest properties in shaped castings.
The Institute of Cast Metal Engineers in the UK has set up the “John Campbell Medal” to be awarded each year for significant advances in the casting industry world wide.