Materials Science Research Centre

Sharon is Professor of Design & Materials, and Director of the RCA’s Materials Science Research Centre. She is responsible for the intellectual and strategic leadership of the Centre, raising research funding, management of staff members, and management of labs. She contributes to cross-College business through a number of committees.

Dr Bruna Petreca is Reader in Human Experience and Materials at the Materials Science Research Centre. She works in the integration of human experience into new areas of materials development: circular economy, digital environments, on-site/on-demand manufacture, human health and wellbeing. Currently, she leads ground-breaking research to deliver new circular fashion-textile experiences and innovative digital tools as the Consumer Experience strand lead in the UKRI Interdisciplinary Textiles Circularity Centre and as Co-I in the EPSRC Consumer Experience Digital Tools for Dematerialisation for the Circular Economy project.

Miriam leads the Materials Circularity research strand of the Textiles Circularity Centre (TCC).

Professor Phil Purnell is Visiting Professor at the Materials Science Research Centre.

Chipp researches Materials and Robotics for sustainability and human experience at the Materials Science Research Centre, with a background in AI, engineering and creative computing.

Ricardo is a fusionist designer and researcher interested in body x world relationships and hybrid environments focused on wearables, smart devices, and materials.

Kailash is a Specialist Technical Instructor in Biomaterials, as well as the Laboratory Manager for a new research-focused biomaterials lab situated in the Materials Science Research Centre. He is leading the development of this lab, which will enable a pathway from ideation to experimentation all within a versatile space for biomaterial science at the College.

Chiara's research proposes to devise novel and creative interdisciplinary ‘design-science’ approaches for bio-based deconstruction of wool in a context of circular textile economy.