event
Thursday 14 May 2015: Stuff Matters
Prof Mark Miodownik - UCL
HAR/004 17:15-19:00
Part of the Inspiring Science series.
Whatever people think about the rapid pace of change of technology, our most fundamental categorization of stuff on the planet has not altered: there are living things that we call life, and there is non-living stuff that we call rocks, tools, buildings and so on. As a result of our greater understanding of matter, this distinction is now becoming blurred and is likely to usher in a new materials age. Bionic people with synthetic organs, bones and even brains will be the norm. Just as we are becoming more synthetic, so our man-made environment is changing to become more lifelike: living buildings, and objects that heal-themselves are on the horizon. This lecture reviews the changes to the material world that are coming our way.Professor Mark Miodownik is Director of Institute of Making and Professor of Materials & Society at UCL where he teaches and runs a research group. He received his Ph.D in turbine jet engine alloys from Oxford University in 1996 and since then has published more than 100 research papers. His current research interests are smart materials, innovative manufacturing, and sensoaesthetic materials. Prof Miodownik regularly presents BBC TV programmes on engineering, and he is author of Stuff Matters which won the Royal Society Winton Prize. In 2014 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.
