Mike, an alumnus of the University, obtained his BA (Queens 1957) and PhD (Clare Hall 1961) in the Department. He held academic posts as Assistant in the Institut für Metallphysik in Gottingen (1962–1965) and as a Professor in the Department of Applied Physics at Harvard (1965–1973). He returned to Cambridge to take up the position of Professor of Engineering in the Cambridge University Engineering Department in 1973. He was subsequently a Royal Society Research Professor at Cambridge (1989–2009) and Royal Academy visiting professor at the Royal College of Art, London (2001–2003). In 1997, with David Cebon, he set up Granta Design, a software company specialising in materials informatics and software for materials selection. The company was acquired by Ansys in 2019.

The inaugural holder will be Associate Professor David Collins, who works within the field of alloy micromechanics and processing. David will take up the post on 1 November 2023.

The Joint Heads of Materials Science & Metallurgy, Professors Ruth Cameron, James Elliott and Jason Robinson, commented:

"This post will be transformational for the Department in terms of continuing to support outstanding research and teaching in core areas of materials science, and be particularly attractive to early career researchers given the worldwide reputation of Professor Ashby for his exceptional contributions to the field."