MPhil/PhD Materials Science

The Materials Science Research Centre MPhil/PhD programme focuses on the invention and the experience of materials to address real world challenges, such as environmental sustainability, and human health and wellbeing.

Our research areas include:

• regenerative and circular materials
• programmable biomaterials
• materials systems, such as bio-mimetic approaches to develop and manufacture materials and structures
• digital materials for new typologies of tangible interfaces
• the human experience of materials to gain a deep understanding of perceptual experience (analogue and digital)

Our approach to these areas includes the design and manufacture of materials for different applications at different scales – in the body, on the body, interaction with the body, the body in (a space).

We encourage students to pioneer interdisciplinary research that spans materials science, chemistry and engineering, biology, bioscience, materials design, computer science, human-computer interaction, human-centred design, phenomenology, neuroscience, experimental psychology, and psychophysics.

The concepts of sustainability and creativity underpin research at every level – from the material, through manufacturing, to the use phase.

Programme details

• PhD: 3–4 years (full time), 6–7 years (part time)
• MPhil: 2–3 years (full time), 4–6 years (part time)

Career opportunities

PhD study leads to a range of opportunities. You might become a researcher in industry or government or an academic in an international institution. It is an opportunity for you to investigate a research question or issue in depth, enabling you to take a more reflective, more innovative role in design.

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