Department of Materials, University of Manchester
The School of Materials University of Manchester is unusual in that the Materials Science departments at UMIST and the Victoria University of Manchester were already joint before the merger of those two institutions in 2004. The School now also incorporates the Textiles, Paper Science and Corrosion & Protection departments of UMIST.
The School is one of the largest departments in Europe that has a material science focus. This is reflected by an annual research income of around £7m, 60 academic staff, and a population of 150 research students and 60 postdoctoral research staff. The School offers undergraduate and postgraduate courses in all aspects of materials including materials engineering, biomaterials, corrosion protection, technical textiles, fashion and business.
In the 2001 Research Assessment Exercise both the Material Science and Corrosion and Protection centre gained the highest rating, 5*. The School of Materials has also been ranked first for research power in the UK.
The current head of school is Professor Paul O'Brien FRS.
