Professor Cathie Rae

Cathie was elected to the Fellowship in 2002 as an Official Fellow, and is also an Assistant Postgraduate Tutor. She is part of the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, as Professor of Superalloys.

Biography

Cathie was one of about 20 women admitted to St Catherine’s College, Oxford in 1974, which was the the first year that women were admitted to the ‘men’s’ colleges. She was a scholar and senior scholar of the College, achieving a First in Metallurgy and the Science of Materials. She remained at Oxford for her DPhil, under the supervision of the late David A Smith. She was appointed Rolls–Royce Research Fellow at Girton College, Cambridge, which started a long association with Rolls–Royce and the gentle science of high temperature turbine materials. Cathie took an eight–year break from research following the birth of her children. During this time, she helped develop a Science Foundation course at the University of East Anglia to enable those without A–level qualifications to gain entry to university and taught at the Open University. In 1997 she returned to Cambridge to join the newly established Rolls–Royce Research Centre in the Department of Materials, and in 2002 took up a lectureship and Fellowship at Emmanuel.

Research

Cathie's research focuses on understanding the fundamental mechanisms determining the mechanical properties and degradation processes of nickel–based alloys used in aeroengines. She combines electron microscopy and other atomic-scale characterisation techniques with modelling and simulation. The principal aim is to increase engine efficiency, and hence reduce fuel consumption, by increasing the safe operating temperature of the engine. She has been involved in the development of several new alloys, production techniques and life assessment strategies and holds patents for many of these.