Animate Materials – A Sustainable Future
Old Emanuel, Professor Miodownik spoke with great enthusiasm about the way in which the human relationship has changed with materials over time. He looked toward a future when buildings would behave like trees, or our skin, and have the ability to heal. He explained how his team are already trialling the use of additives containing bacteria and starch into concrete structures, like bridges and roads, that are able to regenerate calcium carbonate when exposed to the air. Overall we were taken by his great passion for science and sustainability.
Mark Miodownik is a broadcaster and writer, and believes passionately that to engineer is human. He received his PhD in turbine jet engine alloys from Oxford University, and since has worked as a materials scientist. For over a decade, he has championed materials research that links the arts and humanities to medicine, engineering and materials science. This culminated in the establishment of the UCL Institute of Making where he is Director and runs the research programme.
He regularly gives talks on engineering and materials science to tv, radio, festivals, and school audiences, including giving the 2010 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, writing a column for The Observer, and being a regular presenter of science TV programmes. Some of his achievements include, the Royal Academy of Engineering Rooke Medal, being elected as a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and winning the Royal Society Winton Prize. In 2015 he won a US National Academies Keck Futures Prize. In 2016 he was awarded the AAAS Prize for Public Engagement with Science.
Annabel and Teddy (Upper Sixth)
