Professor John Morton
College Lecturer in Engineering Science
John graduated from Cambridge University with a BA in Engineering. He completed his DPhil in Oxford in the Department of Materials. After postdoctoral research and college lecturing in Oxford he was appointed to a University Lectureship in Aeronautical Engineering at Imperial College. He then went to NASA as a Senior Research Associate. Following a period as Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics at Virginia Tech he returned to the UK as Director of the Structural Materials Centre in the Defence Research Agency (DRA) of the Ministry of Defence. When the greater part of the DRA was privatised as QinetiQ John served as Chief Operating Officer and Strategy Director of the Future Systems Technology Division. John was later appointed Chief Executive of the Engineering and Technology Board.
Undergraduate teaching
John gives engineering tutorials in First Year Statics, Dynamics and Materials (P3); Second Year Structures, Materials and Dynamics (A3);Â and Third Year Engineering in Society (B2), Within the Department of Engineering Science he supervises a Third Year Group Design Project (B3).
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Research interests
John’s research lies in the field of the Mechanics of Composite Materials and Structures with a particular focus on the effect of size and scale upon the initiation and propagation of damage. Recently he has developed an interest in the mechanics of biological materials.
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Publications
- Zhou, A. Pellegrino, U. Heisserer, P.W. Duke, P.T. Curtis, J. Morton, N. Petrinic, V.L. Tagarielli. “A new technique for tensile testing of engineering materials and composites at high strain rates.”Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.Proc.R Soc.A 475: 20190310. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspa.2019.0310
- Zhou, U. Heisserer, P.W. Duke, P.T. Curtis, J. Morton, V.L. Tagarielli. “The sensitivity of the tensile properties of PMMA, Kevlar® and Dyneema® to temperature and strain rate.”Polymer, 225 (2021) 123781.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polymer.2021.123781