Alan Turnbull (born 4 September 1949) is a British corrosion scientist and engineer specialising in the measurement and modelling of environment-assisted cracking and the localised corrosion of metals. He is a Senior NPL Fellow in Electrochemistry at the National Physical Laboratory.

Education

Turnbull received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Strathclyde in 1970. He completed his doctorate in 1974 at the University of Bristol.

Research and career

Turnbull joined the Materials Division of the National Physical Laboratory in 1973, becoming a Fellow in 1989 and a Senior Fellow in 2011. He has developed integrated models for the generation, diffusion and trapping of

hydrogen atom A hydrogen atom is an atom of the chemical element hydrogen. The electrically neutral atom contains a single positively charged proton and a single negatively charged electron bound to the nucleus by the Coulomb force. Atomic hydrogen consti ...

s in metals. Hydrogen accumulation modifies the properties of metals and can result in

fracture Fracture is the separation of an object or material into two or more pieces under the action of stress. The fracture of a solid usually occurs due to the development of certain displacement discontinuity surfaces within the solid. If a displa ...

. By controlling this process, engineers can reduce the likelihood of failure and extend the operating lifetime of metal systems used in oil and gas applications, power generation and hydrogen gas transport. He has authored eight international industry standards.

Awards and honours

Turnbull has received awards from the Institute of Corrosion, the European Federation of Corrosion and NACE International. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2011 and a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2013. One or more of the preceding sentences may incorporate text from the royalsociety.org website where "all text published under the heading 'Biography' on Fellow profile pages is available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License." , "Intellectual property rights" In 2016, he was appointed Order of the British Empire for ''services to science and industry''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Turnbull, Alan 1949 births Living people British materials scientists Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering Members of the Order of the British Empire Alumni of the University of Strathclyde Alumni of the University of Bristol Scientists of the National Physical Laboratory (United Kingdom)