Professor Brian Derby

Brian Derby graduated in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University in 1978 and obtained his PhD, also from Cambridge, in 1981. He spent 1 year working at the Centre d'Etudes Nucleaire de Grenoble as an ESA Fellow before spending 2 years in Cambridge University Engineering Department as a Research Fellow. He was in the University of Oxford, Department of Materials from 1983 -1998 as a Research Fellow, Lecturer and Reader in Materials Engineering, where he was Director of the Oxford Centre for Advanced Materials and Composites. He was appointed Professor in Materials Science at the Materials Science Centre in 1999. He was elected a member of the World Academy of Ceramics in 2004.

Brian Derby's research interests span a wide range with a focus on the processing-structure-mechanical properties relation in ceramics, glasses and biomaterials. Recently he has been at the forefront of research into the development of inkjet printing as a manufacturing tool. He has particular interest in developing methods of characterising materials and processes in situ. Much of this work has been carried out collaborating with industry and other research groups across the world.

• Fundamental aspects of fluid/substrate interactions in ink jet printing.
• Manufacture of structural and functional components by inkjet printing.
• Fabrication of tissue scaffolds by novel 3-Dimensional manufacturing methods.
• Deposition and patterning of living cells and biological molecules by inkjet printing.
• Mechanical properties of nanostructured brittle materials.
• Manufacture of nanostructured materials using nanoporous anodic alumina templates.
• Characterisation of surface mechanical properties and damage in ceramics and glasses.
• In-situ characterisation of interfaces in materials at elevated temperature using neutron reflection spectroscopy.
• Fracture of laminated structures.

• "Residual Stress and Sub-Surface Damage in Machined Alumina and Alumina/Silicon Carbide Nanocomposite Ceramics", H. Wu, S.G. Roberts and B. Derby, Acta Mater. 49, 507-517 (2001).
• "Ink Jet Printing of Wax Based Ceramic Suspensions", K.A.M. Seerden, N. Reis, J.R.G. Evans, P.S. Grant, J.W. Halloran and B. Derby, J. Amer. Ceram. Soc. 84, 2514-2520 (2001).
• "Accurate Determination of Young's Modulus and Poisson's Ratio of Thin Films by a Combination of Acoustic Microscopy and Nanoindentation", M.J. Bamber, K.E. Cooke, A.B. Mann and B. Derby, Thin Solid Films, 398-399, 299-305 (2001).
• "Manufacture of biomaterials by a novel printing process", S. Limpanuphap and B. Derby, J. Mater. Sci. Mater. Medicine 13, 1163-1166 (2002).
• "Novel collagen scaffolds with predefined internal morphology made by solid freeform fabrication". E. Sachlos, N. Reis, C. Ainsley, B. Derby and J. T. Czernuszka, Biomaterials 24, 1487-1497 (2003).
• "Modelling of R-Curve Behaviour in Ceramic-Metal Laminates", Y. El-Shaer and B. Derby, Mater. Sci. Eng. A, 365, 196-201 (2004).
• "Characterisation of Interfaces Between Liquid Tin and Alumina in the Presence of Titanium Alloy Additions", B. Derby and S. Holt, Interface Sci. 12, 29-37 (2004).
• "Numerical and Experimental Comparisons of Mass Transport Rate in a Piezoelectric Drop-on-Demand Inkjet Print Head", D-Y. Shin, P. Grassia and B. Derby, Inter. J. Mech. Sci. 46, 181-199 (2004).