Mark Miodownik

Mark Andrew Miodownik is a British materials scientist, engineer, broadcaster and writer at University College London. Previously, he was the head of the Materials Research Group at King's College London, and a co-founder of Materials Library.

Education Miodownik attended Emanuel School in South London. In 1987 he went to St Catherine's College, Oxford where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in metallurgy. He completed his Doctor of Philosophy degree in turbine jet engine alloys at Linacre College, Oxford in 1996, specifically oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) alloys.

Career and research Miodownik's scientific research is primarily in materials science, metallurgy and biomechanics. He has also been key to the development of the concept of sensoaesthetics, which is the "application of scientific methodology to the aesthetic, sensual and emotional side" of materials. In 2003 he co-founded the Materials Library, a website for people working in materials science, with a grant from NESTA. In 2005 he organised two talks at Tate Modern on the influence of new materials on the arts. In 2006 he and two other scientists produced AfterImage, an installation that explores light and colour perception, which was exhibited at the Hayward Gallery. In 2007 the Materials Library made a podcast, "What can the matter be?", hosted by the Tate. He was interviewed by Jim Al-Khalili for The Life Scientific first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2014. and delivered that year's Royal Institution Christmas Lectures. The three-part series, Size Matters,

Miodownik has done work with the Tate Modern, the Hayward Gallery, and the Wellcome Collection. He has close ties to the Royal Institution of Great Britain and presented a Friday Evening Discourse in February 2013 entitled "Strange Material". His television appearances include Wonderstuff on BBC Two in August 2011, The How it Works series on BBC Four in 2012 and The Genius of Invention on BBC Two in early 2013. He also appeared as a regular guest on Dara Ó Briain's Science Club on BBC Two in late 2012.

Awards & honours Miodownik was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2014. His book Stuff Matters: The Strange Stories of the Marvellous Materials that Shape Our Man-made World won the 2014 Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books, and a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Communication Award in 2015. He was awarded the American Association for the Advancement of Science Prize for Public Engagement with Science the same year.

In 2017, Miodownik was awarded the Michael Faraday Prize and Lecture by the Royal Society, and in the 2018 New Year Honours he was awarded an MBE for "services to Science, Engineering and Broadcasting".

Publications Stuff Matters: The Strange Stories of the Marvellous Materials that Shape Our Man-made World (2014), Liquid Rules: The Delightful and Dangerous Substances That Flow Through Our Lives Paperback (2020), It's a Gas: The Sublime and Elusive Elements That Expand Our World (2023),