Mark Miodownik is Professor of Materials & Society at University College London. He received his PhD in turbine jet engine alloys from the University of Oxford, and has worked as a materials engineer in the USA, Ireland and the UK.

Mark has championed materials research linking the arts and humanities to medicine, engineering and materials science, culminating in the establishment of the UCL Institute of Making, where he is Director. He recently set up the Plastic Waste Innovation Hub, a multidisciplinary team of researchers, including scientists, engineers, designers, and social scientists, taking a design-led approach to tackling the issues of plastic waste.

As a broadcaster and writer his TV programmes e.g. How It Works have reached millions of viewers globally; he is the author of Stuff Matters, a New York Times Best Selling book, which won the Royal Society Winton Prize (2014) and the US National Academies Communication Award (2015).

Mark has been awarded several prizes, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science prize for Public Engagement with Science, the Royal Society Faraday Medal and the Thornton Medal from the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and was awarded an MBE for services to materials science, engineering and broadcasting.