Dr. Bryn Davies from the Warwick Mathematics Institute has been awarded £1 million by the Leverhulme Trust to develop new mathematical tools to help account for manufacturing imperfections when designing complex materials.
Dr. Bryn Davies, Assistant Professor, Mathematics Institute, University of Warwick said: "Receiving this award is very exciting. It's a privilege to be trusted with such a large pot of funding at this stage in my career. The recognition means a great deal, and the funding will allow me to recruit a team of researchers to tackle these important scientific challenges."
Metamaterials are complex materials that use repeating patterns of micro resonant structures to manipulate and control waves in previously unforeseen ways. They are poised to be a transformational technology of the 21st century for advances including optimising low-power antennas, improving the resolution of medical imaging devices, and controlling noise pollution. They have also allowed researchers to build exotic things like invisibility cloaks and perfectly flat lenses.
To achieve metamaterials' potentially vast societal impact, researchers must overcome one fundamental obstacle - imperfections. Intricate micro-scale geometries are often difficult to fabricate, particularly in large volumes, and this creates imperfections. Bryn's plan is to develop new mathematics (using ideas from spectral analysis and topology) to further the approach of designing systems to be resilient to imperfections.
Dr. Davies added: "The problem of fabrication is often seen as something for materials scientists and engineers to solve by developing new manufacturing processes, but I believe mathematical insight can make significant breakthroughs on this fundamental problem."
The Research Leadership Award from the Leverhulme Trust is presented to 'talented scholars who are embarking on a university career who need to build a research team of sufficient scale to tackle a distinctive research problem.' Universities are restricted to one applicant, and the award is only available once every three years.
Professor James Robinson, Head of Warwick Mathematics Institute, said: "Bryn's research demonstrates precisely the kind of originality and ambition that characterises applied mathematics at Warwick, and I am delighted that this has been highlighted by the award of this prestigious Leverhulme Research Leadership Award. It will serve to expand our fundamental understanding of complex materials and their potential applications."
