Charles’ background is in materials, having graduated with an MEng in Materials Science and Engineering at Imperial College London, UK. In his final year of study he took a slight specialism into Aerospace Materials covering aerospace structures and design.
After leaving Imperial College, Charles secured a graduate scheme position with Rolls-Royce plc based initially in Derby, UK. As a graduate he spent placements on the shop floor, at the Heathrow field service office looking after British Airways and also spent time in Montreal, Canada, with the Energy business. After 18 months, he graduated from the scheme and into the Rolls-Royce internal Failure Investigation Team investigating a wide range of components from failed bolts to failed fan blades. In the majority of cases investigations concerned metallic components, however polymer, composite or even cardboard components were not uncommon. Investigations regularly included an aspect of tribology or fractography using a high magnification scanning electron microscope.
In 2014 Charles relocated back to London and to Hawkins, and has continued to investigate Materials and Mechanical failures. Charles now regularly returns to his ‘student days’ at Imperial College to perform analysis of fracture surfaces on the microscopes available. Since joining Charles expanded his areas of expertise by applying his passion for motorcycles to undertake the required training to investigate Road Traffic Accidents, Vehicle Examination and Protective Headgear cases. This was mostly as a result of his passion for motorcycles and his knowledge gained from his classic motorcycle racing endeavours. At present, Charles now holds an ACU Clubman Competition License.
Charles is a Principal Associate based in our London office and his work is spread fairly evenly across all his disciplines.
