Role
Professor Neil Mansfield is Head of the Engineering Department.
Career overview
Professor Mansfield joined NTU from the School of Design Engineering at Imperial College London where he was Professor of Design Engineering and Human Factors. At Imperial he was been central to the establishment of the School of Design Engineering which launched in 2015. He established the Human Performance and Experience research cluster and the college Human Factors Network. Prior to joining Imperial, Neil was Professor of Human Factors Engineering and Associate Dean for Research at Loughborough University Design School. He is both a Chartered Engineer and Chartered Ergonomist / Human Factors Specialist as well as FHEA.
Neil obtained his undergraduate degree from the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research at the University of Southampton where, after working in the automotive industry, he returned to complete his PhD studying the biomechanics of drivers exposed to vibration and shock and their interaction with their seats. He spent his post-doc in Umeå Sweden, where he worked with the forestry industry to improve the working environment of machinery drivers, before taking up a lectureship at Loughborough University.
Research areas
Neil has published over 80 Journal papers in the areas of human factors, engineering, and sports performance.
He was awarded the United States Army Aviation Medical Association ‘Joseph Haley Award’ for best paper published in 2011 for collaborative work with Norwegian Air Force.
His research focuses on optimising the experience, performance, and wellbeing of product users. He has a particular expertise in designing for dynamic environments including vibration and shock, and design for vulnerable users. Applications have included optimisation of the design of workspaces across the breadth of transport applications from cars, trains and aircraft, through to mining, agricultural, and military vehicles. He has also worked with sports equipment manufacturers and elite athletes to understand and optimise performance whilst minimising risk of injury.
External activity
Professor Mansfield is an editor of Ergonomics, a Journal that celebrates its 60th year in 2017, being the first research journal in the field. He anticipates taking on the role of President of the Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors in 2018.
Previously he chaired the ISO working group tasked with re-writing a standard that is now embedded into the law of every European member state, and worked on many other standards in the area of optimising the health and wellbeing of those working in off-road machines, and operating power tools.
He has worked as advisor to industry (e.g. Nissan; Renault), government (e.g. U.S. Federal Railroads), and sport (e.g. UK Sport Olympic programme). He is an external assessor for research organisations in the UK (e.g. EPSRC College) and worldwide. He has acted as assessor for external assessments of research at overseas Universities.
Professor Mansfield is organiser of the first Comfort Congress, a conference concerned with understanding and improving human comfort, to be held in Salerno, Italy. He has been invited to be keynote speaker at events for business and academia across the world (e.g .TechForesight London, VIBNET Stockholm, InterNoise Osaka).
Sponsors and collaborators
Neil works with a wide range of funding bodies and collaborators. These have included automotive (Renault, Nissan, Jaguar Land Rover, Bridgestone), defence / security (DSTL, MoD, Norwegian Air Force), government (Innovate UK, NHS, AHRC, EPSRC, EU), and equipment manufacturers (e.g. DorsaVI, wisp, Openhouse, Callaway Golf).
Press expertise
- Ergonomics and human factors
- Design engineering and innovation
- Industry 4.0
- Future technologies
- Cycle sport and equipment design
- Cyclocross