Profile

Professor Gary Lock has a Chair in Aerospace Engineering and leads the Turbomachinery Research Centre.

He was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship in 2011.

Gary arrived at the University of Bath in 1995 with the following career trajectory:

• Probationary Lecturer, 1995-1997
• Lecturer,  1997-2001
• Senior Lecturer, 2001-2008
• Reader, 2008-2012
• Professor, 2012
• Head of Department 2015

Between 1991 and 1995 Gary was a Research Assistant in the Department of Engineering Science and a Fellow of Oriel College, University of Oxford.

He obtained a PhD from the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies in 1991.

Research

Gary's philosophy is:

• to aspire to excellence in research within a practical, engineering context
• to publish in prestigious journals with the greatest readership
• to present at conferences with the most relevant audience of peers
• to create impact and deliver a competitive advantage to industrial sponsors
• to collaborate with the top academics in his field
• and to achieve these aspirations while maintaining an equal excellence in teaching.

His main research activity is the technology associated with land-based gas turbines used to generate power, as well as aero-engines (jets).

Generally such research has been undertaken using turbine-based rigs running close to engine-operating conditions.

Gary's approach is to conduct more fundamental work to measure, to compute and, most importantly, to understand the flow and heat transfer using generic, fully-instrumented experiments specifically designed for optical access and for thermal-imaging techniques.

The understanding obtained from these fundamental investigations assists the interpretation of results obtained for more specific engine conditions and geometries, and this in turn informs their design.

Interested in supervising students studying:

• Fluid dynamics
• Thermodynamics
• Heat recovery cycles
• Gas turbine technology
• Measurement techniques