Professor Maulik Patel PhD

Personal Statement

Our research interest lies in materials for nuclear, advanced manufacturing and renewable energy. We like to use various types of radiation to understand the influence of atomic level defects on material performance. Radiation can also be used to enhance performance of materials to tackle challenging environmental concerns linked to climate change. I did my Ph.D. in Physics from the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC)-India in 2009 studying ion beam induced modifications in pyrochlores, thorium dioxide and Indian nuclear waste glasses. My post-doctoral research at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) (2009-2012) focused on radiation effects in complex oxides derived from fluorite structure, neutron diffraction of Tc-pyrochlores and He-accummulation in MAX-phases. I started my academic career as a research assistant professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville (UTK) where I continued working on He-accumulation in pyrochlores, accident tolerant ceramic coatings and materials for renewable energy. At UTK my work was mostly funded through the Department of Energy - Nuclear Engineering Universities Programs (DOE-NEUP). In early 2017, I joined the University of Liverpool as a Senior Lecturer of Nuclear Materials Science (Associate Professor) where I lead a research group to study, crystal chemistry of complex oxides, radiation effects in materials, low cost catalysts for water splitting and metallurgy for advanced manufacturing. The groups expertise lies in using high energy accelerators and x-ray/neutron scattering techniques to characterise materials. At Liverpool, my leadership roles includes, Materials and Manufacturing Cluster Lead, Director of Dual PhD program with National Tsing Hua University and Lead for Center for Doctoral Training on Growing Skills for Reliable Economic Energy from Nuclear (GREEN-CDT) for Liverpool.