Computational materials engineering is a lens through which we focus the resources of a large and complex array of experimental equipment on a problem of industrial importance. We must understand material behaviour across many length scales, from the atomic to the human, and in order to do this take advantage of electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction all the way up to large-scale forging and rolling mills. The resultant understanding permits us not only to model metal deformation, but also to develop new ways in which to design metals for new applications.

Chris is a Professor and Head of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering in the Faculty of Engineering at Monash University, and a Chief Investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Design in Light Metals.

His research focuses on understanding the role of crystallographic texture in the deformation of light metals and alloys, and modelling the effects of texture and microstructure on mechanical behaviour.

Chris has received several awards for commercialisation of magnesium alloys and in 2010 was co-recipient of the TMS Light Metals Division Award for best fundamental research in magnesium for the paper: Y.-B. Chun,C.H.J. Davies, "The Evolution of In-Grain Misorientation Axes (IGMA) During Deformation of Wrought Magnesium Alloy AZ31," Magnesium Technology 2010.

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