The University of Huddersfield hosted dozens of scientist from around the world whose research is ensuring that the latest technologies can withstand the most extreme conditions - from nuclear irradiation at industrial sites to the challenging environment that confronts medical implants inside the human body.
The event was a conference titled Innovation in Materials for Extreme Environments (IMEE). Over two days, it featured almost 30 presentations and keynote addresses, including many from scientists based at the University of Huddersfield itself.
The chair of the organising committee was the University's Dr Vladimir Vishnyakov, of the School of Computing and Engineering. It was the second IMEE that he has convened. The first took place over one day in 2016, and its success led to the three-day 2017 edition.
Next year the conference will relocate to the University of Poitiers in France, and return to Huddersfield in 2019. One of Dr Vishnyakov's goals is to develop contacts with industry, so that firms benefit from breakthroughs described by the scientists, who came to IMEE from countries that included France, Russia, India, Ireland, Belgium and Sweden, alongside the large UK contingent.
Some of the University of Huddersfield-based contributors included Dr Graeme Greaves, on the investigation of materials in an extreme irradiation environment; Professor John Allport, on the challenges in materials for turbochargers; Professor Paul Humphreys on influence of microbial biofilms at radioactive waste disposals; Dr Emily Aradi, on nanoporous tungsten under helium irradiation; Professor Liam Blunt, describing research into water vapour barrier layers in flexible photovoltaics; Dr Philip Shackleton on the material challenges of railways; and Dr Krzysztof Kubiak, who spoke on the roughness and wettability of surfaces.
The keynote speakers were Professor Anne Neville of the University of Leeds, who spoke the complexities of the simulation of wear and corrosion in medical implants; Professor Ulf Jansson of Uppsala University in Sweden, on high entropy materials and extreme environments; plus Professor Carol Featherston of Cardiff University, on composites for the aerospace industry.
