Currently recruiting Doctor of Engineering in AR/VR for Fusion Energy, Research Fellows & Lecturer in Digital Engineering for Fusion Energy

Professor Lee Margetts is the UKAEA Chair of Digital Engineering for Fusion Energy and the Director of The Fusion Engineering Centre for Doctoral Training. The CDT is funded by the UKAEA FOSTER programme to train the first "fusioneers" who will deliver Fusion Power to the grid. 

Lee is the Discipline Head of Education for Mechanical Engineering,  responsible for the following programmes: BEng/MEng Mechanical Engineering; BEng/MEng Mechanical Engineering with Management; MEng Mechanical Engineering with Industrial Experience; MSc Mechanical Engineering Design; MSc Advanced Manufacturing Technology; MSc Thermal Power & Fluid Engineering and MSc Reliability Engineering & Asset Management. He is also the academic lead for the student led MancheSTAR Fusion Society.

Lee was awarded a BSc in Geology by the University of Durham in 1994. After graduating, he worked for Surrey County Council, first in Highways and Transportation and later in Materials and Construction Management. In 1997, he continued his studies at the Victoria University of Manchester (note the gown colours), gaining an MSc in Geotechnical Engineering in 1998 and a PhD in Civil Engineering in 2002. He was awarded an MBA with Distinction in International Engineering Business Management by the Alliance Manchester Business School in 2011.

From 2001 until 2015, Lee worked for the University of Manchester as a Senior Consultant in High Performance Computing. He joined the School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering as a Lecturer in Structural Integrity in April 2015. After promotion to Senior Lecturer in 2017 and Reader in 2021, he was appointed Chair. Lee holds an external appointment as Visiting Faculty at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA.

Lee has a number of leadership roles in external organisations, where he actively promotes the industrial exploitation of High Performance Computing for engineering simulation. These include elected Chair of the NAFEMS HPC Technical Working Group and former Chair of the PRACE Industrial Advisory Committee. Lee has also been a member of a UK Task Force, initiated by the British Embassy in Chicago and EPSRC, which has led to collaboration between the UK and the USA in the exploitation of High Performance Computing. Lee has also provided advice to the Biden administration regarding Quantum Computing. 

Lee is the initiator and owner of the open source engineering software ParaFEM and author of the accompanying text book “Programming the Finite Element Method” - which is available in Chinese. The software and text book are used in teaching, research and industry across the globe.