Thomas Kissinger

Why did you choose Cranfield?

There are only three or four groups in the world where interesting work is going on in my specialist area and Cranfield is one of them. Cranfield has ten to twenty years of experience and this research group is respected in the field, which is important for publishing papers. Also Cranfield has a wind tunnel and although I didn’t end up using it, there was potential to.

It’s an interesting research group, there are only a few that specialise in that area, there was a scholarship and Professor Tatam allowed me to shape the subject. I sent an initial draft in and based on that work he was happy to allow me to do things in a way that I wanted. I had freedom to expand and in the end it evolved in to something quite different.

What was Cranfield's impact

I’m managing different research projects. It’s very busy and challenging, you have to be adaptable and ready for a good opportunity to come along. This is one of the advantages of having well-connected people at Cranfield. I’m also trying to get student funding. I have three MSc students who I’m supervising. But my main interest, probably 90% of my work, is research: what I enjoy is seeing my ideas grow, and hopefully having an impact.

Can you tell me a little about your long term goals?

I’d prefer to stay in academia. You have more flexibility and space to develop new things, compared to industry where you are more likely to be fixing immediate problems. I see myself more as a researcher than a lecturer, but I would definitely like to try lecturing.

How do you think Cranfield can help you with this?

You get interesting research projects and good students coming and working with you … having a good research environment. My group is particularly good, we meet for a coffee regularly, we know what’s going on in each other’s areas, there’s opportunity for cross-fertilisation and there was the flexibility to take advantage of these opportunities while I was writing up my PhD.