Bulk and Surface Engineering of Materials

The broad research area of the present JRG is Materials Science and Engineering. More specifically, it aims at strengthening and broadening the numerous current collaborations between materials science and materials engineering in both institutions.
The originality of the present consortium is primarily that it encompasses both surface and bulk aspects since linking those two scales is crucial in the development of innovative materials. Moreover, it actually considers a ‘third scale’: the interface, between the material’s bulk and the functional coating or thin films deposited on it. It must be stressed that the surface treatments involves both wet and dry processes, working at pressures ranging from atmospheric pressure to ultra-high vacuum. Furthermore, the research topics are of both fundamental and applied natures. Indeed, our philosophy is that those two scales are actually more than complementary in the field of materials science. Fundamental understanding of microstructure development is key in the long term development of innovative products, while applied or industrial research, beside providing a large spectrum of funding possibilities, aims at the incremental development of products of direct industrial interest (including the scale-up of the process from the lab to the pilot scale)