An ongoing challenge in modern materials science is to elucidate the relationship between materials' structure and properties. The better we understand this link, the more readily we will be able to design new materials to meet specific technological or industrial needs.

Our research in this field includes work on

• materials under high pressure (Prof. Dunstan, Prof. Dove, Dr Sapelkin);
• negative thermal expansion materials, which contract rather than expanding when heated (Prof. Dove, Dr Phillips);
• pressure-induced softening (Prof. Dove); and
• host-guest interactions in porous functional materials (Dr Phillips).