We're recruiting!
We are expanding our vibrant Materials Science and Engineering community. We are looking for individuals who will contribute to maintaining our welcoming, inclusive, diverse and inspiring environment for our students, and whose expertise will complement and enhance our existing research capabilities.
We are looking for individuals who are passionate about both research and teaching, and who are keen to explore new collaborations and new approaches where possible.
Lecturer in Metallurgy - Characterisation
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Lecturer in Metallurgy - Applications
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Lecturer in Energy Materials
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Lecturer in Nuclear Materials
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Our Department: Introduction from Professor John Haycock
Harry Brearley – the inventor of stainless steel in 1913
Henry Clifton Sorby - the ‘Father of Metallography’ and President of the Royal Microscopical Society. Renown for discovering that carbon gives steel its strength.
Mark Firth – Master Cutler and Mayor of Sheffield. Renown steel industry founder and philanthropist.
William ES Turner – Pioneer of Glass Technology and former Head of Department. First introduced scientific methods as a basis for the properties of glass.
Today the Department is renowned for its teaching and research in Materials Science and Engineering, and continues to be successful in funding a range of world-leading research activities – from energy materials and metallurgy, to biomaterials and polymers. All of these areas underpin the science necessary for creating modern innovations in engineering and technology – from aircraft engines to batteries, and racing cars to medical implants.
We are consistently ranked in the top five for teaching in national league tables and our graduates are highly sought-after, with an average of 97% securing graduate-level employment or graduate study within six months of graduation – 1st in the Russell Group of Materials Science Departments.
In the most recent Research Excellence Framework (2014), the Department of Materials Science and Engineering was ranked in the top 5 in the UK for research excellence and in the top ten for research outputs.
From our origins we had the aim of delivering ‘Technical training of those responsible for running the great industries of the region’. We maintain that aim to this day – with an international outlook.
Professor John Haycock
Head of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Research in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Our research activities cut across both science and engineering, across industrial sectors and across materials classifications. We work collegially within the department to share knowledge, and interdisciplinarily with other university departments to infuse materials technologies within other disciplines. Research ranges from theory, concept and discovery to application, optimisation and translation.
We broadly classify our research into six research themes: Advanced Structural Materials, Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering, Functional Materials and Devices, Multiscale Materials Modelling, Nanomaterials and Nanoengineering, and Nuclear Engineering, although projects often straddle the boundaries between these themes.
We contribute to a number of research centres of excellence, including the Henry Royce Institute, MAPP (Manufacture using Advanced Powder Processes), DARE (Designing Alloys for Resource Efficiency), Steels Hub, SUBST (Substitution and Sustainability in Functional Materials and Devices), MIDAS advanced characterisation lab for nuclear materials, CDP (Centre for Dielectrics and Piezoelectrics), and URI Energy.
The Department is home to three Centres for Doctoral Training: Advanced Metallic Systems, Next Generation Nuclear and Advanced Biomedical Materials.
Each year, we are awarded about £12m to help us advance technology across a wide range of industries. In addition to the 36 academic staff, we have 61 research associates and 134 PhD students.
Teaching in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering
The Department of Materials Science and Engineering offers three and four year undergraduate courses which allow students to experience a wide variety of aspects of the discipline. The first two years provide the foundations, after which students can choose to specialise in an area that is of particular interest to them. Areas of specialism include Biomaterials, Metallurgy or Nuclear Engineering, or students can opt for research experience or a year in industry.
Our first and second year undergraduate students are taught in the Diamond, a world class facility for engineering education opened in September 2015.
Our postgraduate taught programmes are suitable for materials scientists and engineers to further specialise, but are also ideal for students coming from outside the discipline to gain the skills they need to become a successful materials scientist or engineer. Postgraduate taught programmes are offered in Materials Science and Engineering, Advanced Metallurgy, Nuclear Science and Technology, Polymers and Polymer Composites, Aerospace Materials, Biomaterials and Regenerative Medicine and Nanomaterials.
Industrial Links
Since the Department was established in the 1880s, we have fostered lengthy relationships with industry, initially on a local level, but now on a global basis.
The broad and interdisciplinary nature of our materials and manufacturing research is enriched by collaborations with science departments such as Chemistry and Physics & Astronomy delivering the highest quality fundamental research, whilst development at higher technology readiness levels includes the participation of the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre with Boeing and the Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre. Further translational research is underpinned by close collaborations between the Schools of Medicine and Dentistry and the more traditional engineering disciplines, allowing our researchers to exploit their understanding of underlying physical phenomena for the public good.
Long term investment and support by our sponsors, both private (e.g. Rolls Royce, Boeing, GKN, Seagate, Tata Steel, Johnson Matthey, Bentley) and public (RCUK, Innovate UK, EU), is devoted to creating a better understanding of the fundamentals of material science and to resolve challenges in a number of domains, especially the aerospace, automotive, healthcare, information technology and energy sectors.
We are the European hub for the Centre for Dielectrics and Piezoelectrics, with responsibility for growing membership of the CDP across the continent. Member companies will be able to access the research facilities of the Department and other Center Partners to develop projects to investigate and solve specific problems.