Website for the Brassart Research Group, Engineering Science Department, University of Oxford

Our vision

Our research seeks to understand and predict the mechanical and functional response of complex materials by developing physics-based theories and computational models across relevant length scales. We draw on continuum mechanics, statistical physics and non-equilibrium thermodynamics to connect micro- and mesoscale processes to macroscopic material behaviour. Ultimately, we aim to use this understanding to enable the design of materials with predictable and controllable properties and function.

Our current research focuses primarily on polymers, which underpin technologies ranging from sustainable and biodegradable plastics and rubbers to biomedical implants and energy materials. Their macroscopic behaviour emerges from processes at the mesoscale, motivating interdisciplinary approaches at the interface between mechanics, physics and chemistry.

More broadly, we are interested in multiphysics phenomena in solids, particularly the coupling between mechanics, diffusion and chemical reactions.

Our research group is part of the Solid Mechanics and Materials Group of the Department of Engineering Science at the University of Oxford.