Professor Mark Miodownik
Professor Mark Miodownik is a materials scientist, engineer, broadcaster and award-winning author with a fascination with the materials that shape our everyday lives.
Materials have shaped the course of human history. We named entire eras after them, from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age, yet today the materials that underpin our lives are often hidden in plain sight. Mark's work uncovers the stories behind the stuff we often take for granted, revealing how the materials we depend on are discovered, designed, made, used and ultimately reused or discarded.
A material magpie by nature, Mark has spent years collecting, investigating and sharing the stories of materials. He co-founded one of the most incredible materials libraries in the world. Located at the UCL Institute of Making and built over 20 years, it underpins a research programme that ranges from why different spoons can change the taste of food to what disposable nappies can tell us about waste, design and sustainability.
Bringing together ideas from science, engineering, design, the arts and humanities, his work looks beyond individual products to the wider systems, technologies, behaviours and policies that shape how we produce, consume and dispose of the things we rely on every day.
As Professor of Materials and Society, he is a Director of the Institute of Making at UCL, an interdisciplinary community of scientists, engineers, artists, designers, and makers to explore materials through making, experimentation and creativity.
He is the bestselling author of Stuff Matters, Liquid and It's a Gas. Through his books, television and radio programmes, exhibitions and events, he encourages people to look again at the things around them and ask where they came from, how they were made, and what happens to them when we no longer need them.
Curiosity about the material world sits at the heart of his Royal Society Professorship for Public Engagement in Science. Through See stuff differently, Mark is bringing together researchers, communities, industry and policymakers to explore how we make, use, repair, reuse and recycle the products that underpin modern life. Through public events, schools engagement, citizen science, digital media and partnerships, the programme aims to spark conversations, foster curiosity and encourage new ways of thinking about the material world around us.
