4 October 2022
In this fellowship program, I will have the opportunity to combine my passions of materials de-sign, fabricating prototypes, and mentoring students. My long-term career goals are perfectly aligned with this fellowship: I am looking to establish a strong research group and develop strong contacts with the industry. Dr. Mohand Saed
“We are extremely pleased that Dr. Mohand Saed will continue his research at the Cavendish Laboratory”, said Prof. Andy Parker, head of the Department of Physics at the University of Cambridge. “As an outstanding early career scientist, his multidisciplinary work will no doubt further progress the research in soft robotics, adhesives and vibration damping.”
During his academic career, Dr. Saed has made significant scientific impact. He was responsible for the ‘revolution’ in liquid-crystal elastomer materials (his work of 2015-17) that made these materials available to everyone. Before his work, making these materials was a domain of specialized hardcore chemists. His work has made their mass-development possible, and today, every research group in the world – academic and industrial – is using these materials. Since coming to Cambridge, he has been working on producing the next ‘revolution’, creating the dynamic elastomer networks (vitrimers) that are thermoset – yet re-processable, re-programmable, and therefore fully recyclable. His work in creating the next generation of smart multi-functional materials is also contributing to the spin-off company, Cambridge Smart Plastics Ltd, which he co-founded in 2019. With the support from this fellowship, he will introduce a new smart materials platform based on Liquid crystalline elastomers (LCEs). He will use these materials to manufacture robotics devices using 4D printing technologies. LCEs are class of smart materials, they have the ability to change shape, colour, damping properties, and adhesive strength reversibly in response to external stimuli such as heat or light. His successful research has resulted in 37 published papers and 6 patents till date.
Before joining as a Postdoc at the Cavendish Laboratory, Dr. Saed completed his Masters and PhD at the University of Colorado. His PhD research made a crucial contribution to the field of LCEs by solving their synthesis problems using “click chemistry”. Click chemistry is the most efficient chemical reaction pioneered by the two-time Noble Prize winner Karl Barry Sharpless (2001 and 2022). This was a paradigm shift in the field, as this made it possible to produce LCEs at a mass scale. Post his PhD, he joined University of Texas as a Postdoc where he played an essential role in developing a new technique to process LCEs via 4D printing, which is now widely used by many researchers worldwide. In 2018, Dr. Mohand Saed joined the Cavendish Laboratory as a Postdoctoral Research Associate. His research here focuses on developing smart, sustainable, and stimuli-responsive polymers.
Through his Royal Society University Research Fellowship 2022 award, he and his research group will further progress research in the advancement in robotics, additive manufacturing, adhesives, energy dissipative materials, and novel liquid crystalline materials. The vital areas of advanced materials will benefit from the results of the proposed experimental studies. “In this fellowship program, I will have the opportunity to combine my passions of materials design, fabricating prototypes, and mentoring students. My long-term career goals are perfectly aligned with this fellowship: I am looking to establish a strong research group and develop strong contacts with the industry”, reacted Dr. Mohand Saed upon learning about the award.
Image Credit: Dr. Mohand Saed