In his early career, Alan's core work was focused on traditional ceramics, advanced ceramics, bioceramics, high temperature refractories and masonry, looking at all stages of the production route from raw materials to manufacturing defects, through to finished products and in-service failures.

In more recent years he has spent an increasing amount of time looking at an ever diversifying range of materials and products from various sectors: In medical, Alan has been involved in the inspection of coating integrity of stents, the categorization and image analysis of residual particulates present on additively manufactured medical devices and the identification of foreign contaminants in a range of components from stent delivery systems to artificial joints.

In healthcare, he has worked on projects to evaluate the effect of different toothpaste formulations on remineralization of tooth enamel and also the effect of different treatments on hair morphology and texture.