Professor Rod Smith

Professor Rod Smith was until recently Head of the Mechanical Engineering Department at Imperial College London, where he now holds a Royal Academy of Engineering Research Chair. This Chair is supported by Hitachi. He has held previous appointments at the Universities of Cambridge and Sheffield.  His main area of research interest has been the fatigue of materials, but in recent years he has been deeply involved in railway engineering, transport and energy issues.

He is particularly well acquainted with Japan and the Japanese railway industry.  He has led DTI Missions to Japan to examine the Safety and the Passenger Interface of the Railway Industry.  As part of the Japan 2001 Festival, he arranged for an original Japanese Bullet Train to be donated to the National Railway Museum in York.  He has been a Trustee of the National Museum of Science and Industry since 2002. He has major research contracts from the UK rail industry, and has given expert opinion in many legal cases following railway accidents both in the UK and abroad.
He has recently been advising the Conservative opposition in the UK on Transport matters and transport policy for the next general election.