Bob Ainsworth is a mechanical engineer/materials scientist best known for his outstanding work in structural integrity — the ability of a structure to hold together under a load, including its own weight. Bob’s research has been applied to methods for assessing the safety of nuclear power plants and other critical engineering structures. He has contributed to structural integrity procedure documents that are in use around the world.

His R5 assessment procedures are the UK power-generation’s industry standard for assessing the lifetime of high-temperature components. In addition, Bob’s defect-assessment R6 procedures are used routinely on nuclear plants in the United Kingdom and also more widely beyond the nuclear industry.

Bob was honoured with election as a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2004. In 2006, he was awarded the James Clayton Prize from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. He has been involved in teaching at the postgraduate level for many years and is regularly invited to speak at conferences and seminars.