Christabel graduated from Imperial College London with a 1st Class degree in Aerospace Materials. She carried out a summer internship at Rolls-Royce where she worked on the Joint Strike Fighter project investigating the presence of defects in linear friction welds.
Following her Masters Degree, she continued her studies at Imperial College completing a PhD in the deformation mechanisms of zirconium alloys used in nuclear submarines. During this time, she was seconded to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she worked alongside the Suresh Research Group. Her PhD involved the use of traditional materials characterisation techniques including Scanning Electron Microscopy, Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy, Transmission Electron Microscopy and X-ray Diffraction, as well as computational modelling.
Having completed her PhD Christabel worked as a consultant for Efficio, London, where she specialised in procurement optimisation across a wide range of industries including civil service, engineering and defence.
In 2013 Christabel relocated to Northern Ireland where she worked as a Materials Development Engineer at Schrader Electronics. She was responsible for the testing and characterisation of conceptual and current materials and her work involved failure analysis of electrical components including battery tag failures, characterisation of solder composition for PCB/battery failures and microscopy of PCBs to investigate possible delamination.
Christabel then joined the University of Ulster as a Research Engineer in the Northern Ireland Advanced Composites and Engineering (NIACE) facility where she worked with several aerospace companies investigating the effect of recycling on the physical and mechanical properties of PEEK/carbon fibre composites. Continuing her work on composites, she joined CCP Gransden as a Project Manager and was responsible for the introduction of a major defence product to market. The role involved extensive understanding of the product including bill of materials, mechanical drawings, and pre/post production tests.
Since joining Hawkins in 2018, Christabel regularly carries out investigations into: material failures (polymers, composites, metals); escapes of water and oil; system failures; and personal injury claims. She has written a number of CPR compliant court reports. Christabel also regularly presents at industry awareness days.
Christabel is a Senior Associate based in our Glasgow office.
