2025 UKRRIN Student led conference - Keynotes & programme

Keynote Speakers

Professor Paul Plummer

Professor in Rail Strategy, Director BCRRE, UKRRIN Lead, University of Birmingham

Paul Plummer is Professor in Rail Strategy, Director of University of Birmingham Centre for Rail Research & Education (BCRRE) and academic lead for the UK Rail Research & Innovation Network (UKRRIN). Key areas of research focus on the transport system from a customer experience and mobility perspective including the implications for public policy. Formerly CEO at Rail Delivery Group (RDG), Group Strategy Director at Network Rail, President of European Infrastructure Managers (EIM) and Chief Economist at the Rail Regulator (ORR), also working as non-executive director and as a mentor.

Dr Stephen Lewis

Rail Technologies Manager, British Steel

Stephen holds an undergraduate honours degree in Mechanical Engineering. In 2011 he completed a PhD in Tribology of the Wheel Rail Contact at the University of Sheffield. Stephen has since worked in both academia and industry. He worked as a Research Associate at Sheffield University specializing the wheel/rail contact, wear, RCF and low adhesion. He joined British Steel in 2017 as a consultant and is currently Manager of their Rail Technologies department. Stephen has overseen forensic analysis of numerous broken rail samples since 2017 furthering his expertise in rail microstructure, rail welding and corrosion. Rail Technologies also assist British Steel’s rail sales by providing customer technical services, product development, marketing and R&D. Stephen is a named author on 26 journal articles and has been cited over 950 times to-date.

Dr Mark Burstow

Principal Vehicle Track Dynamics Engineer, Network Rail

Mark is a specialist in railway vehicle dynamics and computer simulation, wheel/rail interaction, rolling contact fatigue (RCF) and derailment investigation. His is currently Network Rail’s Principal Vehicle Track Dynamics Engineer with an interest in all aspects of vehicle track interaction and optimisation of the wheel/rail interface. He also regularly lectures on vehicle dynamics issues and derailment investigation. Mark’s background is in fatigue and fracture mechanics: he gained a PhD in computer modelling of fracture mechanics from Sheffield University in 1992. He joined the rail industry in 2001 and became engaged in research into rolling contact fatigue (RCF) in rails. In 2006 he joined Network Rail to continue working on RCF and become involved in the investigation of a wider range of wheel/rail interface problems. He also works with train operators, vehicle owners and designers to help reduce the impact of vehicles on track and improve wheel and rail life.

Detailed programme

The detailed programme is available here.

Suggested hotels

A wide range of hotels are available in Sheffield city centre. We recommend the University owned Halifax Hall and Jonas Hotel.