Materials Scientist
Dr Alastair Houston is a Materials Scientist based in our Cardiff office.
Alastair is an experienced materials scientist with 1st class M.A, M.Sci and Ph.D degrees in Materials Science and Metallurgy from the University of Cambridge. Alastair began his career in an academic environment, researching laser welding, protective coatings and compositional variations in jet engine turbine blades, and the production of new materials used for low-level nuclear waste storage.
In 2015, Alastair began his Ph.D research on the inclusion of fine ceramic fibres into Diesel Particulate Filters. He analysed the effects of filtration efficiency and thermal shock resistance of these hybrid ceramic composites through careful design of experiments and use of simulation techniques involving computational fluid dynamics. He has attended and presented written and oral presentations at international conferences and his work has been published in scientific journals.
Alastair joined MTD in October 2019, continuing his interest in materials science. He has performed investigations involving materials identification, mechanical testing, corrosion and composite materials for the marine and construction industries.