Internationally Recognised PhD Joins UK Flow Measurement Specialist

The expanding UK water instrumentation specialist, Detectronic (UK), has strengthened their technical team with the appointment of Dr Keith Kirby as director of research and development. The company is enjoying world-wide success with its ultrasonic flow meter, the Multi Sensor Flow Monitor (MSFM). Dr Kirby’s role will be to build on this by developing a new generation of survey products for the water industry.

Dr Kirby, a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology, is a chartered engineer, physicist and scientist. Following an MSc in electronic control engineering he obtained his PhD for work on ultrasonic flow measurement. His involvement in the water industry started when he joined the early Detectronic as a senior research and development engineer in 1990, progressing to research and development manager in 1993.

His career then took him to consumer electronics specialist Pace Plc where he was part of the team that created the Sky Plus set-top box, bringing data storage technology into the living rooms of millions of homes working with leading hard disk manufacturers in the USA to develop a product specific to this market. He lived and worked in India for 18 months as part of the team that set-up Pace’s research and development facility in Bangalore.

Commenting on his return to water industry instrumentation at the new Detectronic, Keith said, “It’s good to be working with the original team again and at a time when the company is growing rapidly and the water industry is presenting new challenges. I thrive in an environment where I can bring my technical knowledge and experience to bear on practical problems.”

Detectronic, managing director Steve Woods observed, “Keith is true technologist who combines his knowledge of physics, electronics and engineering to work through complex problems and provide robust workable solutions. We are delighted to have him back in the team. As we grow we need to maintain our technical and commercial momentum so Keith is looking at the product range to ensure that we can optimise measurement performance and improve our methods of manufacture. Longer term, there are new sensors using new technologies that will create further opportunities to extend the product range and give us improved performance and versatility.”