Prof. Kathy Christofidou

Professor Kathy (Katerina) Christofidou is the Chair in Digital and Sustainable Metallurgy at the University of Sheffield. She joined the department in 2019 and, in 2024, became the first woman to hold the position of Chair in Metallurgy in the department's 140-year history. She concurrently serves as a Research Area Lead for Advanced Metals Processing at the Henry Royce Institute, the UK's national institute for advanced materials.

Prior to her appointment in Sheffield, she held roles at the University of Cambridge, as part of the Rolls-Royce University Technology Centre, and the University of Manchester, where she also worked in close collaboration with the Henry Royce Institute. She holds a PhD in Metallurgy from the University of Cambridge and an MEng in Aerospace Materials Engineering from Imperial College London.

Professor Christofidou is a physical metallurgist focused on high-performance structural alloys. Her research, leading the IDEA group, bridges high-performance alloy design with high-throughput "make-test-characterise" methodologies, all grounded in advanced manufacturing and 'Materials 4.0' principles. The group's work focuses on three key strands: a) accelerated, digitalised methods of alloy development with emphasis on manufacturing performance; b) development of high-throughput experimental methods for alloy evaluation; and c) advanced diffraction methods for non-destructive alloy evaluation applied to high-performance components.

Her research is rooted in industrial collaboration, focused on innovating how alloys are designed, always grounded in physical metallurgy and the interplay with manufacturing. This is demonstrated in her continued work with Rolls-Royce plc on new alloys for jet engines, which previously led to new superalloys for turbine discs as well as advances in additive manufacturing of superalloys. This impact extends to other critical sectors through projects with VW on metallic coatings for automotive applications, The Exploration Company on burn-resistant rocket alloys, MatNex on new magnetics, Paralloy on alloys for hydrogen reformers, and Oerlikon on new hard metals, amongst many others. Her significant contributions to industry were recognised with the 2022 IOM3 Grünfeld Award and Medal.

Professor Christofidou is passionate about working with industry and the wider community to realise tangible change. She is focused on pushing the boundaries of our field and realising the potential of advanced sustainable metallurgical systems in delivering net-zero, digitalised technologies. This commitment is reflected in her extensive service: she sits on the Aerospace Technology Institute's (ATI) cross-cutting advisory group and the UK Open Multimodal AI advisory group, and serves as an advisor to MatNex. Within the academic community, she is the Secretary to the TMS High Temperature Alloys Committee and an Associate Editor for Materials Research Letters.