Dr Alex Dickinson MEng, PhD, CEng MIMechE
Associate Professor
Dr Alex Dickinson is Associate Professor within Engineering and Physical Sciences at the University of Southampton.
Alex Dickinson is a Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) Research Fellow and a Lecturer in the Bioengineering Science Research Group. He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
He graduated in 2006 with an MEng degree in Mechanical Engineering including a semester studying computer aided engineering at ESTACA, Paris. He completed a PhD in 2010 part-time whilst working in industry, in the Research and Development team at Finsbury Orthopaedics Ltd, on a Knowledge Transfer Partnership. This industry-academia collaboration focussed on the development of hip replacement implants employing ceramic bearing materials, and the computational and experimental tests to verify them.
This work contributed to the development and certification of the DeltaMotion® and DeltaSurf® hip implant systems. DeltaMotion entered clinical use in 2008 and is showing good early joint registry results. The team won KTP Awards for Engineering Excellence in 2011, and a summary of the real-world impact from the research can be found here.
Alex completed postdoctoral research projects supported by the EPSRC Doctoral Prize scheme and a Fraunhofer Institute Fellowship with the Biomechatronic Systems group at Fraunhofer IPA, Stuttgart, as lead researcher on EU-funded project 'EnDuRE'.
From 2012-2014 Alex was a New Frontiers Fellow in Southampton’s Faculty of Engineering and the Environment (FEE), developing new directions to apply his bioengineering science research background, motivated by an aim to achieve clinical impact and socioeconomic benefits for patients, healthcare providers and industry.
In 2014 he secured a prestigious Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellowship, providing funding to conduct research into the Development, Testing and Fitting of Prosthetic Limbs, which runs from 2015-2020.
Alex lectures Engineering Design and Computing, Biomaterials, and Biomedical Implants and Devices. He is the University's Academic Liaison Officer for the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, and is honorary Chair of the IMechE Southampton Area Committee. An enthusiastic communicator of his research, he is involved in frequent outreach activities and is a STEM Ambassador.
