Mark Price graduated in 1987 with a First Class Honours degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Queen's University Belfast and a Masters in Engineering Computation in 1988 before taking up a post in industry as a stress engineer in Short Brothers (now Bombardier Aerospace). He returned later to QUB to undertake a PhD in the department of Mechanical Engineering on hexahedral finite element mesh generation which was completed in 1993. Mark then joined FEGS Ltd (now Transcendata Europe) as a software engineer and project manager to implement his research work in their CAE application CADFix. He then made a brief career change moving into a financial derivatives company (First Derivatives) to develop advanced back office software systems & tools for financial institutions.

In 1998 he returned to QUB Aeronautical Engineering lecturing in aircraft structures. With a strong focus on design applications and integrated cost models including manufacturing processing effects in design simulations. He has built a solid body of work and methods in the analysis and design of airframes, and design automation for airframes. He received the 2006 Thomas Hawksley medal from the IMechE for work on friction stir welding in airframe design. He has published over 200 articles, supervised 30 PhDs to completion and has obtained substantial grant funding including prestigious major national and international collaborative programmes. In addition he has held key administrative roles including Head of teaching for Aeronautical Engineering and was a university auditor for the quality assurance of degree programmes.  His previous key leadershp role was Head of the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, from 2011-2015, and was Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Engineering and Physical Sciences from 2015-2020.  In recognition of the importance of tehnical staff and their role in research and education he led the QUB Technician Commitment in 2019-2020 and is an active participant in the QUB EPSRC funded Inclusion Matters Project (EP/S011919/1) which is addressing Equality and Diversion in EPS disciplines.

Currently Mark is focused on High Value Design Research exploring novel and disruptive deisgn technologies aiming to help engineering designers take advantage of cloud based technologies and distributed manufacturing. He is the Principal Investigator of the EPSRC Programme Grant on "Re-Imagining Engineering Design" (EP/V007335/1) working with the Universities of Loughborigh and York and supported by ten leading enginering companies across sectors.  Other current projects include the EPSRC funded Design the Fture 2 Programme - Building the Blind Watchmaker (EP/R003564/1) which is building integrated design and manufacturing systems (www.biohaviour.com).  Additional projects inlcude airframe design methods, value driven design, life cycle costing and structural design of metallic and composite airframes.

He has been a member of the AIAA Aircraft Design Technical Committee (2004-2015), and was the Technical Co-Chair for the ATIO conference in 2007 & 2009. Mark was also a Director of the QUB Institute for the Sustainable World (ISW) where sustainability and whole life costs of engineering products were his key focus.  He sits on the Board of the Campaign for Science and Engineering (CaSE) and the Kane Foundation.

School/University Roles

Pro-Vice-Chancellor Engineering and Physical Sciences and Member of the University Executive Board (2015-2020)
Head of the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Enginering (2011-2015)
Director of Research Integrated Aircraft Technologies Cluster - 2006-2011
Director of the Centre of Excellence in Integrated Aircraft Technologies (CEIAT) - 2008-2011
Board of Directors of the Institute for the Sustainable World (ISW) - 2009-2012
Northern Ireland Advanced Composites and Engineering Centre (NIACE) management board 2012-2020

External Committee Memberships/Roles

Campaign for Science and Engineering (CaSE) - Board Member 2019-2021
EPSRC Manufacturing the Future Strategic Advisory Team - Member 2017-2019
EPSRC Manufacturing the Future Strategic Advisory Team - Chair 2020-2021
AIAA Value Driven Design Programme Committee 2007-2015
AIAA Education Series Advisory Board 2006 - 2015
AIAA Aircraft Design Technical Member 2005 - 2015
AIAA Conceptual Aircraft Design Working group (CADWG21) 2005 - 2015
NAFEMS Education and Training Working Group 2005 - 2007

NB AIAA - American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics

Conference Technical Programme Co-Chair

CEIAT 1st International Conference on Innovation and Integration in Aerospace Sciences 4th - 5th August 2005, Belfast 2005
AIAA 7th Aviation Technology Integration and Operations Forum - Belfast, N. Ireland - September 2007
AIAA 9th Aviation Technology Integration and Operations Forum - Hilton Head, USA - September 2009

Conference Theme Chair

AIAA 10th Aviation technology Integration and Operations Forum, Fort Worth, Texas USA

With a strong focus on design applications and integrated cost models including manufacturing processing effects in design simulations. He has built a solid body of work and methods in the design of airframes and design automation for airframes, and is now focused on exploring disruptive concepts in cloud based manufacturing systems integarted with design.

Currently Mark is focused on High Value Design Research exploring novel and disruptive deisgn technologies aiming to help engineering designers take advantage of cloud based technologies and distributed manufacturing. He is the Principal Investigator of the EPSRC Programme Grant on "Re-Imagining Engineering Design" (EP/V007335/1) working with the Universities of Loughborigh and York and supported by ten leading enginering companies across sectors.  Other current projects include the EPSRC funded Design the Fture 2 Programme - Building the Blind Watchmaker (EP/R003564/1) which is building integrated design and manufacturing systems (www.biohaviour.com).  Additional projects inlcude airframe design methods, value driven design, life cycle costing and structural design of metallic and composite airframes.

FormerTeaching:

AER2014 Aircraft Design 2
Introductory course on aircraft design methods. Students learn the rudiments of the process and complete exercises on initial sizing, parametric sizing and initial studies on configurations.

AER3019 Preliminary Design 3
The methods learned in aircraft design 2 are further develeped here to use higher fidelity tools and carry out multiplr iterations on a design. Steudents learn the impoartance and effects of key design parameters such as T/W and W/S.

AER3004 Aircraft Structures 3
Advanced structural analysis methods using energy methods to determine structral deflections in frameworks and beams, and methods to determine forces in redundant structures.

AER3019 Aircraft Design 3
Design application course where students are asked to develop a design tool and apply the methods to a practical aircraft configuration problem. This takes the form of a design build fly exercise, using the tools learned in stages 2 & 3.

AER4004 Fracture Mechanics 4
Introductory course to this advanced topic stress distributions around cracks and the analysis of basic structural integrity problems. The course includes a strong industrial element with practical workshops on application of methods in industry.