People

Professor Rod Smith holds a Royal Academy of Engineering Research Chair at Imperial College London, where he was until 2005 Head of the Mechanical Engineering Department. He has held previous appointments at the Universities of Cambridge and Sheffield. His main area of research has been the fatigue of materials, but in recent years he has been deeply involved in railway engineering, transport and energy issues.

Rod Smith is particularly well acquainted with Japan and the Japanese railway industry. He has led DTI Missions to Japan to examine the Safety and the Passenger Interface of the railway industry. In 2001 he arranged for an original Japanese bullet train to be donated to the National Railway Museum in York. He has been a Trustee of the National Museum of Science and Industry since 2002. He has major research contracts from the UK rail industry, and has given expert opinion in many legal cases following railway accidents.

Rod Smith studied Engineering Science at St. John's College, Oxford and has a Ph.D. in Engineering from Cambridge.