Dr Yuanbo Tony Tang BEng, DPhil, CEng, FIMMM, FHEA

Dr Yuanbo Tang

School of Metallurgy and Materials
Assistant Professor

Contact details

Telephone
+44 (0) 121 414 2599
Email
y.t.tang@bham.ac.uk
Address
IRC: Net Shape Manufacturing
School of Metallurgy and Materials
黑料吃瓜网
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Dr Tang is an assistant professor at the School of Metallurgy and Materials, 黑料吃瓜网. He is based in the Net Shape Manufacturing building.

Dr Tang has a sustained interest in metallurgical science, especially in processing, micromechanics and design of high-performance structural materials. This involves nickel-based superalloys, titanium and other hcp alloys for aerospace, healthcare and energy applications.

His recent work on additive manufacturing involves the design and verification of new alloy compositions, decoding their phase transformation behaviour using multi-scale characterisation techniques and development of small-scale experimental mechanics. He works closely with many world-leading industrial firms and entrepreneurial companies, such as Rolls-Royce plc, TWI Ltd, MTU Aero Engines AG (Germany), Proterial (formerly Hitachi Metals Japan), Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (Japan), Alloyed, Plastometrex, etc.

Dr Tang is recruiting PhD students with a strong background and interest in all spectrum of physical metallurgy.

Qualifications

  • Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA), 2023
  • Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (FIMMM), 2022
  • Chartered Engineer (CEng), 2021
  • DPhil in Materials, University of Oxford, 2018
  • BEng (Hons) in Materials Science and Engineering, Imperial College London, 2015

Biography

Dr Tang joined Birmingham as an assistant professor in Dec 2023. He received his bachelor’s degree from Imperial College reading Materials Science and Engineering in 2015. He continued his study at the University of Oxford and received his DPhil in 2018. His thesis explored a long established but not comprehensively studied subject in the superalloys field – grain boundary serrations – out of complete curiosity. He has discovered new mechanisms associated and established relevant quantification methodology and processing map. He has received the William R Miller Award from St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford and financial support from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (Japan) on industrial collaboration.

He then worked at Oxford during 2019-2023, initially appointed as a post-doctoral research assistant then promoted to a senior research fellow in mid-2022. During this time, he was supported by two Innovate UK projects to work closely with Alloyed Ltd on alloy design for additive manufacturing – a longstanding challenge. As a result, three generations of printable superalloys were successfully developed and made commercially available – two decades of improvement compared to best-then alloy. During this time, he was PI for two beamline experiments at Diamond Light Source synchrotron facility. He has also collaborated with MTU Aero Engines in Germany, Proterial (formerly Hitachi Metals) in Japan, National Physical Laboratory (NPL) and Plastometrex in the UK on developing miniaturised mechanical testing methodologies.

Recently, he received funding as PI to lead a project for the Henry Royce Industrial Collaboration Programme. He and collaborators from Sheffield University and TWI Ltd have innovated a new coating strategy to prevent hydrogen embrittlement in pipeline steels. For his contributions, he has received the Chartered Engineer status and was elected as a Fellow at the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining.

Teaching

Dr Tang lectures the 3rd year module on 'Alloy and Microstructure Design', and also the Masters level module on 'Advanced Metallurgy and Manufacturing'. 

Postgraduate supervision

Dr Tang currently co-supervises five PhD students. He is additionally looking for PhD candidates in the following areas.

  • Metal additive manufacturing and related subjects
  • Multi-scale experimental mechanics in extreme environment (including hydrogen)
  • Design and development of new structural alloys
  • Interdisciplinary research involving one or more areas above.

Other activities

  • Visiting Academic to the University of Oxford (since Dec 2023)
  • Academic consultant to Shimane University via the NEXTA project (Oct 2021-Apr 2023)

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Tang, YT, Zhang, Y, Wan, L, Kuek, N, Alabort, E & Reed, RC 2025, '', Scripta Materialia, vol. 260, 116598.

Han, Q, Zhao, S, Tang, YT, Lu, Z, Lopez, MA, Li, A, Cui, H & Reed, RC 2025, '', International Journal of Plasticity, vol. 185, 104223.

Zhang, R, Zhang, JS, Wang, W, Tang, YT, Jiang, J, Reed, RC & Lin, J 2025, '', Acta Materialia, vol. 289, 120893.

Wu, Y, Tang, YT, Barras, J & Shinjo, J 2025, '', Surface and Coatings Technology, vol. 511, 132218.

Zhang, JS, Tang, YT, Jin, R, Lui, A, Grant, PS, Alabort, E, Cocks, ACF & Reed, R 2024, '', Additive Manufacturing, vol. 79, no. 5, 103922.

Zhang, JS, Deng, Y, Liu, H, Tang, YT, Lui, A, Grant, PS, Alabort, E, Reed, RC & Cocks, ACF 2024, '', Materials and Design, vol. 248, 113485.

Rivers, K, Young, B, Tang, YT, Li, BS, Wilkinson, AJ, Armstrong, DEJ & Liu, J 2024, '', Materials and Design, vol. 246, 113370.

Tammpere, H, McKeown, P, Miller, J, Fang, C, Curtis, E, Gaiser鈥怭orter, M, Burley, M, Campbell, J, Artiles, M, Tang, Y, Utada, S, Reed, R & Clyne, T 2024, '', Advanced Engineering Materials.

Zhang, JS, Liu, H, Tang, YT, Deng, Y, Kuek, N, Lui, A, Grant, PS, Alabort, E, Reed, RC & Cocks, ACF 2024, '', Materials and Design.

Manabe, N, Suzuki, AS, Ninagawa, M, Wakabayashi, H, Hirayama, N, Niinobe, K, Tang, YT, Utada, S, Mccartney, DG, Reed, RC & Kitagawa, H 2024, '', Advanced Engineering Materials.

Conference contribution

Tang, YT, Hoang Pham, A, Utada, S, Zhang, JS, Zhuge, Y, Morito, S, Arakawa, K, McCartney, DG & Reed, RC 2024, . in J Cormier, I Edmonds, S Forsik, P Kontis, C O鈥機onnell, T Smith, A Suzuki, S Tin & J Zhang (eds), Superalloys 2024: Proceedings of the 15th International Symposium on Superalloys. Minerals, Metals and Materials Series, Springer, pp. 836-848, 15th International Symposium on Superalloys, ISS 2024, Pennsylvania, United States, 8/09/24.

Utada, S, Han, Q, Li, A, Miquel, MZ, Polato臒lu, C, Hasselqvist, M, Tang, YT & Reed, RC 2024, in J Cormier, I Edmonds, S Forsik, P Kontis, C O鈥機onnell, T Smith, A Suzuki, S Tin & J Zhang (eds), Superalloys 2024: Proceedings of the 15th International Symposium on Superalloys. Minerals, Metals and Materials Series, Springer, pp. 427-438, 15th International Symposium on Superalloys, ISS 2024, Pennsylvania, United States, 8/09/24.

Sasaki, R, Utada, S, Tang, YT, Nunes, CA & Reed, RC 2024, . in J Cormier, I Edmonds, S Forsik, P Kontis, C O鈥機onnell, T Smith, A Suzuki, S Tin & J Zhang (eds), Superalloys 2024: Proceedings of the 15th International Symposium on Superalloys. Minerals, Metals and Materials Series, Springer, pp. 379-390, 15th International Symposium on Superalloys, ISS 2024, Pennsylvania, United States, 8/09/24.

Silva, ACB, Chaia, N, Utada, S, Alkmin, LB, Coelho, GC, Karamched, P, Tang, YT, Reed, RC & Nunes, CA 2024, . in J Cormier, I Edmonds, S Forsik, P Kontis, C O鈥機onnell, T Smith, A Suzuki, S Tin & J Zhang (eds), Superalloys 2024: Proceedings of the 15th International Symposium on Superalloys. Minerals, Metals and Materials Series, Springer, pp. 675-685, 15th International Symposium on Superalloys, ISS 2024, Pennsylvania, United States, 8/09/24.

Review article

Rabbitt, D, Villap煤n, VM, Carter, LN, Man, K, Lowther, M, O'Kelly, P, Knowles, AJ, Mottura, A, Tang, YT, Luerti, L, Reed, RC & Cox, SC 2024, '', Advanced Healthcare Materials.