Amir Bolouri (School of Engineering, University West of England), Associate Professor in Manufacturing has obtained his PhD on developing liquid and semisolid near-net-shape casting of aluminum alloys. Dr Bolouri has published over 30 papers in leading journals and conferences focused on aluminum alloys casting and metallurgy. He held two industrial postdoctoral fellowships focused on aluminum alloys casting – at Brunel Centre for Advanced Solidification Technology (BCAST) as Jaguar Land Rover Research Fellow and in Canada, as Rio Tinto Alcan post-doctoral fellow. Dr Bolouri has won and led competitive internal and external research grants.