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Xavier completed a placement from January to March 2026 based with his industrial sponsors, Rolls-Royce, which will be followed by a second placement from March to September 2026 with ESRF. These placements involve working on the ID3 beamline, a unique opportunity made possible by his academic supervisor Philip Withers and his collaborators.

Xavier’s time with Rolls-Royce focused on reviewing their internal documentation on the effects of temperature on Cold Dwell Fatigue, the core topic of his PhD. Although many academic papers exist on this subject, access to Rolls-Royce’s internal reports is invaluable. This industrial insight will significantly strengthen his understanding of the topic and will allow the development of a more robust introduction to his PhD thesis.

The placement with ESRF will offer a complementary experience; performing key in-situ 3D experiments on my titanium alloys, which will be essential for linking surface-level studies with bulk material behaviour. The datasets planned for collection will require complex and specialised analysis requiring this longer-term placement and opportunity to work directly with beamline scientists. This will allow the analysis to be completed to a high standard but also enable a better understanding of the techniques that will be used. Xavier also hopes that the opportunity to support other users’ experiments will broaden his practical experience and build expertise in synchrotron methods.
 

These experiences represent a significant step forward for my career development, not only for the technical knowledge and training they will provide, but also for the opportunity to build collaborations and expand my professional network beyond the university.

Xavier Ojeda

This experience will complement Xavier's PhD development by allowing him to move from the lab to industry and see how his project fits into a wider scheme of activity. Then to go from industry to an even bigger lab like a synchrotron will provide further opportunities to learn how to work in a new environment. He is optimistic that these experiences will provide the chance to learn more about the connections between the university-industry-research centres, make links with professionals and better understand how he can contribute to society.  
 

Biography

Xavier Ojeda was born in Argentina, and studied materials science and engineering at the Jorge Sabato Institute of technology (ITJS), where he was awarded a full scholarship by the Argentinean National Atomic Agency (CNEA). His Masters thesis was in titanium welding metallurgy, working with the lithium mining industry. While at ITJS, he received a scholarship which allowed him access to an internship in Grenoble. This provided a dual opportunity to work at the SiMAP laboratory on aluminium alloys for the automotive industry, and to study at the University of Grenoble-Alpes. After this, he moved to Manchester to start his PhD in thermomechanical effects in titanium cold dwell, sponsored by the EPSRC and Rolls-Royce as part of the AMS-CDT.