Materials for Nuclear and Extreme Environments

Materials Group IconThe Materials for Nuclear and Extreme Environments research group was established in late 2017 with the generous support of the Sêr Cymru programme. As a core part of Bangor University’s Nuclear Futures Insititute, our primary focus concerns the development of nuclear materials. However, we are materials scientists at heart and maintain general research interests spanning ceramics, metals, glasses and everything in-between.

Materials Research and Production Capabilities

Our laboratories are the cornerstone of the materials section of the Nuclear Futures Institute. Our MERLIN (Materials Energy Research Lab in Nuclear) laboratory gives us the means to produce world-class research by working with a myriad of materials including uranium compounds.

 Find out more about the MERLIN facility.

Meet the Team

Bill Lee

Prof. Bill Lee FREng

The group is led by Professor. Bill Lee who is Sêr Cymru professor of materials in nuclear energy and extreme environments. Bill is a joint appointment with Imperial College London where he is also Co-Director of the Institute of Security Science and Technology (ISST) and Chair in Ceramic Science and Engineering.

Simon Middleburgh

Prof. Simon Middleburgh

Simon is a professor in nuclear materials and joined Bangor in 2018 having previously held positions with Westinghouse and ANSTO.

Michael Rushton

Dr. Michael Rushton

Michael is senior lecturer with interests in the atomic scale modelling of materials.

abdullah professional

Dr. Abdullah Mamun

Abdullah is a lecturer in structural integrity with interests in advanced materials and additive manufacturing.

Postdoctoral Research Associates and Fellows

Dr. Robert Annewandter

Robert's interest is in modelling performance of nuclear fuels, neutron shielding and multi-state fusion reactions with application in nuclear medicine and power production.

Dr. Alberto Fraile

Alberto joined the Nuclear Futures Institute in July 2021 as a Post-Doctoral Research Associate. His main research revolves around the corrosion caused by liquid metals. He is also interested in the design of materials to be used in extreme environments.

Dr. Mehdi Ghardi

Mehdi is a PDRA with an interest in atomistic simulations and numerical modeling of amorphous materials. His work at the Nuclear Futures Institute includes the application of glass science to the nuclear industry.

Dr. Gauri Mahalle

Gauri’s research is focused on computational methods for material modelling of hot deformation and fracture behaviour of advanced alloy for a wide range of applications.

Dr. Phylis Makurunje

Phylis brings a wealth of experience in ceramic materials processing and is working on fuel manufacture and design.

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Dr. Ritesh Mohun

Ritesh's research focuses on the synthesis and behaviour of novel materials, including those designed for nuclear fuel applications, under relevant operational environments. He is also interested in atomic scale modelling to understand mechanisms that can be linked into Mesoscale/Engineering scale models.

Students

A list of our PhD, MRes and placement students, past and present can be found here.

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