Professor Sridhar Seetharaman has been appointed to a  new post as Professor of Low Carbon Materials Technology at WMG, an academic department at Warwick University.

The new post is jointly sponsored by Tata Steel and the Royal Academy of Engineering, and his role will be to lead the racfe for technical innovation to work with next-generation steels, including those whose enhanced strength can help motor manufacturers to make lighter and more fuel-efficient vehicles.

The appointment is in line with Tata Steel’s market differentiation strategy in Europe’s mature steel markets, aimed at helping customers achieve their business goals.

WMG Chairman Professor Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya says: "We are delighted that the new academic partnership between WMG, the Royal Academy of Engineering and Tata Steel is being headed by someone with as distinguished a research record as Professor Seetharaman. His work will complement the significant research that WMG is already doing in areas such as low carbon vehicle technology, and help major international manufacturers, as well as many SMEs in the UK, further their product development goals."

Debashish Bhattacharjee, Tata Steel’s Group Director for Research & Development, said: “By supporting this Chair in Low Carbon Materials, with its emphasis on the crucial area of iron and steel making, we are aiming to plug a gap in academic capability that has been evident in Europe for some time.

“We also see this sponsorship as another means of supporting the High Value Manufacturing Catapult1, which aims to promote advanced manufacturing in the UK. I wish Professor Seetharaman every success and hope there will be new opportunities to strengthen this academic partnership in the future.”

In 2008 Tata Steel also endowed a Chair at Cambridge University’s Department of Materials Science & Metallurgy, where Dr Harry Bhadeshia, one of the world’s leading experts on the physical metallurgy of steels, was appointed as the university’s first Tata Steel Professor of Metallurgy.