Welcome to the Centre for Advanced Structural Ceramics
A UK centre for structural ceramics research and teaching, which aims to be world-leading in this key area and to develop links and collaborations with leading industrial and academic groups world-wide.
The Centre for Advanced Structural Ceramics has been funded by a £5.5M grant from the EPSRC Science and Innovation 4th Call to the Departments of Materials and Mechanical Engineering at Imperial College London. It formally started on 1 July 2008, and will have with strong links to energy, aerospace and defence, transport and healthcare industries.
The third Annual Report describes CASC activities over the period from July 2010 to June 2011, and our newsletter highlights recent developments.
CASC organise the Professor Sir Richard Brook prize for the best ceramics PhD thesis in the UK, sponsored by Morgan Ceramics. Nominations for this prize are now open.
Activities
Three new academic positions (two joint with the Department of Mechanical Engineering) have been filled, addressing:
- measurement of high temperature properties
- high-temperature processing, and
- multiscale modelling and lifetime prediction
Three research assistants and six PhD students (three at other universities co-supervised by Imperial) have been appointed. Extended visits by world-leading academics are on-going; the Centre is hosting national meetings and helping to organise international conferences.
The Centre provides state of the art facilities for the processing and characterisation of structural ceramics.
CASC is developing intoan inclusive focus for national and international structural ceramics research based on a hub-and-spoke model with other universities.
Management
The Director of the Centre is Professor Bill Lee, and the Local Management Team consists of Professor Bill Lee, Professor Tony Kinloch, Professor Neil Alford, Professor Alan Atkinson, Professor Kamran Nikbin and Mr Fraser Wigley. The Steering Group is chaired by Professor John Wood. An Industrial Consortium of UK and multinational companies will have significant input on the research programme.
