Dr. Cockcroft joined the Faculty in the Department of Metals and Materials Engineering UBC as an Assistant Professor in 1991. Following appointment as an Assistant Professor Dr. Cockcroft completed two Study Leaves: one as a visiting Fellow of the Swiss National Science Foundation, at Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland in 1993: and a second as a Visiting Professor under a Grant from the Japan Institute for the Promotion of Science at the Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo Japan in 1996. Dr. Cockcroft's expertise lies in the study of the processes used to transform metals with particular emphasis on the casting processes and the liquid metal refining operations used in the production of advanced light metal alloy mill-products and components. His work often combines the development of sophisticated computer-based models with laboratory and industrial measurements. He has published in excess of a 110 scholarly articles and has received in excess of $5M in government grants and $4.7M from industry as either the primary or co-investigator. He was promoted to the rank of full Professor in 2005 and completed an eight-year term as Head of the Department of Materials Engineering at UBC in 2008. Following stepping down as Department Head, he completed short-term appointments as Dean pro tem, and then Acting Dean. This was followed by a 1-year appointment as Senior Associate Dean Faculty of Applied Science. He currently holds the TIMET Professorship in Advanced Titanium Processing.