Interview

Carl Heron and Joanne Dyer from the British Museum in London talk to Nature Materials about the research activities at the museum and how scientists can impact cultural heritage.

Andrew Livingston (Imperial College London) and Richard Baker (Membrane Technology and Research) talk to Nature Materials about the perks and pitfalls of membrane research and development, and how activities at the new Barrer Centre might lead to next-generation separation technologies.

David Rugg is the Senior Engineering Fellow in Materials at Rolls-Royce plc. He talks to Nature Materials about the need to understand scientific fundamentals to develop reliable and high-performance materials for jet engines, and the importance of university collaborations.

Metallurgy has been crucial to the development of China and its economy. Ke Lu, director of the Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, talks to Nature Materials about the outlook for metallurgy and materials science in China.

Angelos Michaelides, Professor in Theoretical Chemistry at University College London (UCL) and co-director of the Thomas Young Centre (TYC), explains to Nature Materials the challenges in materials modelling and the objectives of the TYC.

Richard Murray of Innovate UK explains to Nature Materials how innovation derived from research findings can boost the production of wealth.

Costas Fotakis, the Greek Alternate Minister for Research and Innovation, explains to Nature Materials how he plans to improve the country's research and innovation landscape under the constraints of austerity.

There have been a number of attempts to commercialize bulk metallic glass over the past 20 years. William L. Johnson, the Mettler Professor of Materials Science at California Institute of Technology, has been a prominent figure in these efforts and gives Nature Materials his perspective on the topic.

The incident at Fukushima Daiichi brought materials in the nuclear industry into the spotlight. Nature Materials talks to Tatsuo Shikama, Director of the International Research Centre for Nuclear Materials, Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University, about the current situation.

Jean M. J. Fréchet, vice-president for research at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), talked to Nature Materials about the achievements of this institution since its foundation in 2009 and its contribution to shaping research attitudes in Saudi Arabia.

The recent economic crisis has drastically affected research and development in Greece, but competitive research goes on, says Eleftherios Economou, a founder of the Foundation of Research and Technology Hellas (FORTH) research centre in Greece, and former General Secretary for research and technology.

Twenty five years since the birth of the field of photonic crystals, Eli Yablonovitch talks to Nature Materials about his pioneering contributions to the field and his vision for nanophotonics.

Tom Waller of swimwear manufacturer Speedo's global research and development facility, Aqualab, talked to Nature Materials about the competitive sporting goods industry and the technology behind their new racing system that will be put to the test at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

Marc Kuchner, an astrophysicist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, and author of a blog and a recent book titled Marketing for Scientists, talked to Nature Materials about his views on the progress of scientific business from Versailles in the 1700s to modern days.

The funding approach taken by the US Department of Energy's SunShot programme, which aims to develop competitive solar technology, has proved very successful. Its director, R. Ramesh, explains why.

Tony Hickson, Managing Director of Technology Transfer at Imperial Innovations, talked to Nature Materials about their efforts in stimulating academics at Imperial College London to disclose their inventions, and about trends in the patent system and the challenges of patenting early-stage technology.

Pavel Exner, the newly elected Vice President of the European Research Council and Scientific Director of the Doppler Institute for Mathematical Physics and Applied Mathematics in Prague, talked to Nature Materials about his role in the European funding institution, the value of peer review in identifying the best scientists, the rise of science metrics and the challenges of running an efficient evaluation system.

John Clarke told Nature Materials about his work on superconducting quantum interference devices — SQUIDs — and his fascination with their applicability to many fields, from medicine to geophysics to quantum information and cosmology.

The critical shortage of rare-earth elements is a concern for a number of important technologies, but also an opportunity to research alternative materials and technologies, says Alexander King, director of the US Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory.

Scott Chambers has worked on epitaxial oxide films for the past eighteen years. Nature Materials asked him about his view on high-temperature ferromagnetism in diluted magnetic oxides.