Akilu Yunusa-Kaltungo Ph.D FIMechE CEng FHEA is currently Head of Education for the School of Engineering at the University of Manchester where he oversees the education of over 5,500 students in aerospace engineering, chemical engineering, civil engineering, computer science, electrical & electronics engineering, engineering management, and mechanical engineering. He is a member of the School of Engineering’s Senior Leadership Team (SLT), chairs the School of Engineering’s Teaching, Learning and Student Experience Committee (STLSEC) and a member of the Faculty of Science and Engineering’s Teaching, Learning and Student Experience Committee (FTLSEC). Prior to joining the University of Manchester as an academic, Akilu spent over a decade of his professional career with the largest building and construction materials manufacturer globally (LafargeHolcim) in various leadership roles including Head of Maintenance, Head of Occupational Safety Health & Environment, Head of Training & Development, Reliability Lead, Quality & Safety Auditor, Operations Model Lead, Operations Projects Lead, and Mechanical Maintenance Implementation Engineer. As an academic, Akilu’s research and teaching activities are practical/applied and continue to be inspired by his vast industrial experience within the wider areas of sustainable asset integrity, process reliability, and safety, where he has supervised several doctoral students to completion. Despite his full-time employment as an academic, Akilu maintains close contacts with the industry and professional regulatory bodies on various fronts including via roles such as the Regional Secretary of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE), Committee Member and Reviewer for British Standards Institute, Member of the Risk Management Committee of the Institution of Occupational Safety & Health (IOSH), and Member of IMechE’s Safety & Reliability Working Group. Through these prestigious professional institutions, Akilu has led/contributed to the development and review of various industrial standards including Asset Management (ISO 55 000 series), Fault Tree Analysis (IEC FTA), Dependability (IEC TC 56). He holds fellowships with IMechE (FIMechE) and Higher Education Academy (FHEA), and chartered status (CEng) with the Engineering Council UK.

Akilu was appointed Reader in Reliability and Maintenance Engineering at The University of Manchester in 2021 in the School of Engineering after joining Manchester in 2016. He obtained a B.Eng. in Mechanical Engineering from The University of Maiduguri (Nigeria), MSc in Reliability Engineering & Asset Management and a Ph.D. in Vibration based Condition Monitoring of Rotating Machines from The University of Manchester respectively. He also holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Business Management from Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU, Nigeria) and another Postgraduate Diploma in Occupational Safety & Health via the National Examination Board for Occupational Safety & Health (NEBOSH), UK.

Akilu has received several research funding as Lead and Co-lead from different competitive sources including government, charity and industry. He has published over 150 technical articles in the form of high-impact peer-reviewed journal articles, peer-reviewed conference articles, technical reports, books, and book chapters. He has also delivered more than 20 invited keynotes to high-profile audiences (including 3 at the United Nations General Assembly’s Science Summits of 2021 and 2022) within the areas of asset integrity, process reliability, OSH, energy consumption optimisation, and decarbonisation of energy-intensive industrial processes.

He has sat on the review boards/panels for funding agencies such as the British Council, Royal Society, Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF), etc. He holds editorial roles with Nature Scientific Reports, Heliyon (Elsevier), Sustainability, Frontiers in Built Environment, and Vibration academic research journals. Akilu was also the External Examiner for MSc Safety Leadership and MSc Risk, Crisis & Resilience programmes at Portsmouth University from 2019-2024 as well as School Governor for High Lane Primary School in Stockport during the same period.

• Chartered engineer with Engineeering Council UK (CEng)
• Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (FIMechE)
• Memeber of IMechE Safety and Reliability Working Group (SRWG)
• Member of the British Standards Institute (BSI) e-Committees
• Registered engineer with the Council for Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (REng)
• Member of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (MNSE)
• Member of the Nigerian Institute of Management (MNIM)

• Maintenance management
• Operations management
• Turnaround/shutdown/outage management
• Maintenance life cycle cost analysis
• Spare parts movement and optimisation
• Total productive maintenance (TPM)
• Reliability centred maintenance (RCM)
• Condition based maintenance (CBM)
• Multiple criteria decision analysis (MCDA)
• Faults detection and diagnosis
• Failure and accident investigation
• Industrial machinery condition monitoring data fusion

Teacher of The Year (2023)

Faculty of Science and Engineering, The University of Manchester 

European Federation of National Maintenance Societies (EFNMS)

Excellence award for best master's thesis  in maintenance engineering from the United Kingdom (2010)

http://www.mace.manchester.ac.uk/news/news-archive/achievements-and-awards-archive/efnms-excellence-award-for-master-thesis-in-maintenance.htm

Teaching and unit co-ordinator for various MSc and UG (approximately 400 students) units within MACE

• Lecturer and unit co-ordinator for asset maintenance systems (MSc REAM)
• Lecturer and unit co-ordinator for asset management strategy and organisation (MSc REAM)
• Lecturer and unit co-ordinator for operations management (UG mechanical, aerospace and civil engineering students). 
• Lecturer for project planning and control (Project management MScs)