Dr Tighe has had a diverse career, spanning 25 years in both academic and contract R&D, and the process industries. He is Principal Investigator of the Process Safety & Intensification (PSI) research group and teaches Safety & Loss Prevention, an important subject, which also underpins his research.

The PSI group addresses challenges related to chemistry, scale-up, engineering materials and safety in industrial processes. Typically this research utilises high pressures to drive chemical reactions (up to ~1000 atmospheres and usually at elevated temperature) and, or the safe use of highly reactive intermediates, conducting detailed fundamental experiments and employing computational methods to yield deeper insights.

Open PhD and post-doctoral positions:

- PhDs: Enquiries about Doctoral Training Platform (DTP) studentships starting October 2026 are welcome. Please first check UKRI eligibility requirements and Imperial academic requirements.

- Post-docs: no positions currently advertised.

I am always very open to discussing hosting PhD and post-doctoral scholarship/fellowship candidates e.g. Imperial President's PhD scholarships, Marie Sklodowska-Curie actions,1851 research fellowships, Royal Society fellowships, CSC scholarships, industrially-funded scholarships etc.