Dr Mark Miodownik
Telephone: +44 020 7848 2442
Email: mark.miodownik@kcl.ac.uk
Office: S1.18
Research Group: Materials & Molecular Modelling
Office Hours:
Biography
Dr Mark Miodownik received his BA in Materials Science (1st Class) from St Catherine's College, Oxford in 1992, and his Ph.D in turbine jet engine alloys from Oxford University in 1996. He is Head of the Materials Research Group at King's and his main research area is self-assembling materials on which he has published 1 book, more than 50 research papers and 3 book chapters.
In 2003 he was awarded a NESTA fellowship to create a Materials Library as interaction space for designers, architects and artists to collaborate with materials scientists (www.materialslibrary.org.uk). Since 2005 he has been organising regular seminars and workshops at the Tate Modern on the influence of new materials on the arts which resulted in a popular podcast.
He co-designed AfterImage, an installation in the Hayward Gallery which was part of the Dan Flavin retrospective showing from Jan – April 2006. He writes a regular column on the senso-aesthetics of materials.
Mark is a broadcaster and writer on science and engineering issues, and believes passionately that to engineer is human. He regularly gives popular talks on engineering and physics to tv, radio, festival, and school audiences and this year will be giving the 2010 Ri Christmas Lectures which will be broadcast on BBC Four. Mark was recently included in the The Times list of the top 100 most influential people in UK science (coming in at no. 89). More information about these activities here.
He is a member of the Cheltenham Science Festival Advisory Group and a Board member of Ignite.
Research Interests
What is the essential difference between animate and inanimate matter? It seems obvious, but the fact is, we just dont know. Biological organisms grow from a single cell into adults by self-organising a very limited range of ingredients. In doing so they produce an amazingly diverse range of living things such as birds, trees and us. Astonishing though this is, the power of self-organisation is not limited to biological structures, we also find evidence of such processes in the inanimate world. Does this mean rocks are partially alive? Is this evidence of the origin of life? How can we understand such processes? Mark Miodownik uses such questions to guide his research in the hope that it will inform our knowledge and appreciation of ourselves. He is also interested in using the knowledge to design artificial self-organising systems, which in turn may yield a future where objects can repair themselves.
His approach to the problem is to study the mechanics and physics of self-organising mechanisms in biological tissues and to compare them with the self-organisation mechanisms found in metals and other crystalline solids. He has an international reputation for conducting such research having obtained research grants totalling more than a millions pounds; published more than forty peer reviewed research publications, three of which are single author papers in high profile international journals; graduated four PhD students, and is currently supervises three more; given over thirty invited talks to research institutions and international conferences. He believes strongly that the new technologies that come from the research need to developed in collaboration with the materials-arts communities.
Selected Publications
Mark Miodownik's diverse range of research interests has resulted in the publication one book, over 50 refereed research publications, several book chapters and one patent. He has also written a regular column for Materials Today on the senso-aesthetic properties of materials.
Book
Jansens, K., Raabe, D., Nestler B., Kosezchnik, E., Miodownik M. A. Computational Materials Engineering , Elsevier, ISBN-10: 012369468X, 2007.
Biological Self-Assembly
Michael Cohen and Marios Georgiou, Nicola L. Stevenson, Mark Miodownik and Buzz Baum. Dynamic filopodia transmit intermittent Delta-Notch signalling to drive pattern refinement during lateral inhibition, Developmental Cell , Vol. 19, No. 1. (20 July 2010), pp. 78-89.
Munoz J. J., Conte, V., and Miodownik M. A. Stress-dependent morphogenesis: continuum mechanics and truss systems Biomechanics and Modeling in Mechanobiology, 2010, Volume 9, Number 4, 451-467, DOI: 10.1007/s10237-009-0187-9
J.J. Munoz , V. Conte and M. Miodownik. Stress dependent morphogenesis: continuum mechanics and system of trusses. in Continuum Mechanics, Andrus Koppel and Jaak Oja, Eds., Nova Science Publ., 2010, ISBN: 978-1-61122-883
Conte, V., Munoz J. J., Baum, B. and Miodownik M. A. Robust mechanisms of ventral furrow invagination require the combination of cellular shape changes Phys. Biol. 6 (2009) 016010 doi:10.1088/1478-3975/6/1/016010
Self Organisation and Microstructural Evolution
Miodownik M. A. Grain Boundary Engineering with Particles. Scripta Materialia , vol 54, pp 993-997 (2006) Hassold G. N., Holm E. A., and Miodownik M. A. The influence of anisotropic boundary properties on the evolution of misorientation distribution during grain growth. (2001) Acta Materialia , 49, pp.2981-2991.
Miodownik M. A., Smereka P., Srolovitz D. J., and Holm. E. A.: Scaling of dislocation cell structures: diffusion in orientation space. (2001) Proceedings of the Royal Society London - A. 457 pp. 1807-1819.
Psychophysical Properties of Materials
Miodownik, M. A. Developing the sensoaesthetic properties of materials, Journal of Pure and Applied Chemistry , Vol.79, No.10, pp.1635-1641, 2007.
Miodownik M. A. Facts not Opinions. (Invited) Nature Materials , Vol 4, July 2005, pp. 506-508. Miodownik M.A. Wax Lyrical, Materials Today, Jan 2007,p6.
A full list of publications is given in the Materials publication list
PhD Projects
Research interests and available PhD projects
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Self-assembly and self-healing of bio-materials: specifically the computer simulation of self-assembly of embryos, and homeostasis.
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Self-organisation of cystalline solids: specifically Grain Growth, Zener Pinning, and Recrystallisation.
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Psychophysical properties of materials: Understanding the non-quantifiable apsects of materials, such as their sensual and tactile properties.
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Materials Libraries: How to build materials libraries as interaction spaces for the materials-arts and materials-science communities.Mark Miodownik's diverse range of research interests has resulted in the publication one book, over 50 refereed research publications, several book chapters and one patent. He has also written a regular column for Materials Today on the senso-aesthetic properties of materials.