Professor Pilidis completed a doctorate in Gas Turbine Engineering at Glasgow University. His first employment was with the British Caledonian group in the gas turbine overhaul business. He joined Cranfield in 1986 as a lecturer and was promoted to the Director of the Thermal Power Masters course and Head of the Gas Turbine Engineering Group. From 2006 to 2021 he was Head of the Power and Propulsion Department and Head of Propulsion Engineering.
Over the years, he has applied performance modelling techniques to understand issues of relevance to operation, maintenance, control and technoeconomic environmental risk analysis (TERA). From 1994 he has been working on Hydrogen projects for gas turbines in air, land & sea applications.
Professor Pilidis has organised and contributed to many international teaching and applied research programmes in the power, gas, oil and aviation industries. Much of his research has been focused on the needs of equipment users in various countries. He has acted as a consultant to several organisations and his active contributions have resulted in many international honours. He is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society, Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and was Chairman of the ASME Cycle Innovations. He has been ISABE Vice President and is currently the UK National Representative to this organisation.
Throughout his career at Cranfield, he has supervised 200+ postgraduate students.