State-of-the-Art Materials Science in UK 2017

Dear Colleagues,

Materials science in the UK is arguably stronger than it has ever been. In part, this might be attributed to the sheer breadth of research activity in the country and the expansion of the boundaries of the topic from the traditional core subjects of materials engineering—mechanics of alloys, polymers and ceramics, for example—to the interdisciplinary fringes. Materials science is no longer practised only in Material Engineering departments but equally in other Engineering disciplines, in Chemistry, in Physics and in Life Science departments. This change in emphasis reflects the major challenges that face not just the UK but the entire planet. Issues such as energy, the environment, health, food & water and digital technologies are all within the remit of Materials Science and all these areas are under scrutiny from researchers across the UK. New methods of synthesis, integration of multiple characterisation techniques (often in situ or in operando) and developing understanding at multiple length scales (often where the boundaries between bulk behaviour and surface behaviour become blurred) are key aspects of modern materials science in the UK and increasingly the major challenges are being met by experimentalists, computational modellers and powerful combinations of the two.

This Special Issue aims at presenting an overview of materials science activities in the UK; a snapshot of some of the very best and most imaginative research currently being performed. All types of contribution are welcome from in-depth reviews through full papers, to brief communications of the latest advances.

Prof. Duncan Gregory
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Functional materials
• Structural materials
• Energy materials
• Biomaterials
• Nanomaterials
• Synthesis
• Structure
• Characterisation
• Calculation
• Properties
• Performance