Living in a material world

An award from NESTA is to fund a unique lab space that will bring together a collection of all new and advanced materials and introduce new avenues to traditional methods of scientific research.

A unique lab space that will bring together a collection of all new and advanced materials and introduce new avenues to traditional methods of scientific research will be established by scientist Mark Miodownik thanks to a Fellowship award of GBP 69,000 from NESTA (the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts), the organisation that invests in UK creativity and innovation.

Miodownik has ten years experience of material science research where he has contributed to the development of jet engine alloys, fired electrons at aluminium alloys to see their make-up and used computers to model how nature constructs materials.

He is a lecturer at Kings College, London, where he works regularly with artists and designers and has pioneered a new module, engineering art, which encourages playfulness and inquisitiveness among scientists.

Miodownik's research focus has been the theories that govern material behaviour, what makes materials strong, bendy, smart or suddenly fatigued.

Recent collaborations with artists such as Helen Storey have shown him the possibilities that exist if he is able to occasionally break free from the constraints of his computer-based work as a research scientist and let his imagination flow in a more creative environment.

NESTA support will enable Miodownik to develop a comprehensive collection of all new exotic and technologically advanced materials.

Most of these would never normally be seen by nonspecialists because they are unsuccessful prototypes, or uneconomic to produce, or have no obvious application.

So there are polymer gels that expand 1000 fold when water is added, ceramic wafers that cut ice like butter, or sensory metals that respond to sound.

This will be housed at the "NESTA EngineeringArt Lab" at Kings College, where he can work in a more hands-on and practical way and on a part-time basis.

The lab will be established following a series of trips to research labs all round the world to discover the latest work in material science and to collect samples.

When a jewellery designer came to Miodownik looking for a material that would change to reflect the wearer's mood he had to research and order some shape memory alloys - alloys that change shape -to find something that could suit their needs.

In the future every time an artist comes to him with an idea Miodownik can go to the lab space and improvise with the materials available.

His discoveries could result in a variety of innovative applications for arts environments, such as materials that changed shape and colour in conjunction with lighting effects, stage design and costume.

Venu Dhupa, NESTA Fellowships Director, said: "Through his NESTA Fellowship Mark will be able to broaden his horizons and become more creative in his approach to science.

This in turn could lead to his discovering new avenues of research that he could bring back to his work on the theoretical aspects of materials science and pass on to the students that he teaches".

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