The Professor who edits the experts
Thu, 14 Oct 2010 15:58:00 BST
When the world's top experts in the field of precision engineering think they are ready to publish their latest research, the University of Huddersfield's Professor Liam Blunt is the man they have to convince.
For the next few years, Liam, who heads the University's Centre for Precision Technologies (CPT), will make key decisions on whether or not the work is of sufficient quality to be granted the kudos of publication. He has been appointed as one of a number of leading researchers in the field, to oversee the crucial peer review process for the Precision Engineering Journal.
Published four times a year, it is the scholarly journal for the European, American and Japanese societies for precision engineering and therefore attracts cutting edge contributions from around the world.
It was at an international conference that Liam was approached by two of the council members of the European Society for Precision Engineering and Nanotechnology. They asked him to take on the journal job, which will mean that he receives papers submitted for publication. He will either appraise them himself or select appropriate academics to carry out a peer review.
"If the writers are asked to modify the paper, I will get back to them to discuss the suggested changes and we will have a process of going back and forth, between the authors and the peer reviewers, until I am satisfied," said Liam.
The fact that Liam is Associate Editor for the Precision Engineering Journal is a boost to the already high global reputation and influence of the University of Huddersfield's CPT.
Meanwhile Liam was recently invited by the European Society to represent EU research scientists at a highly-intensive international workshop on the future for Nanotechnology, held in Hamburg. The conference brought together 100 experts in the field from all over Europe and the USA.
Said Liam: "The conference had a massively-wide brief and included new energy, legislation and product development of nano-scale products, including drugs and machines.
"We just took our brains! It was very intense and there were a lot of topics that I was coming across for the first time," said Liam. "We had sessions where we to had produce a presentation for the whole group. The intention was that the main conclusions would influence EU and USA policy on nanotechnology research."
