CMatP Profile: Professor Nikki Stanford

I work at the University of South Australia. I’m an academic, and do both teaching and research. I teach the first year materials engineering course— that’s the best part of my job. I love it. I have several PhD students that I supervise, an aspect of my job that is both challenging and rewarding. I also manage all of our Institute’s advanced characterisation equipment, which includes all things materials scientists love: electron microscopes, x-ray machines, that kind of thing.

I was looking for a job in research or science, but didn’t really have a passion for the traditional disciplines of chemistry or physics. I like the applied nature of materials, the real life applications, so that’s why I ended up where I am. As time transpired, I realised that what I really like about it is the multi-disciplinary nature of materials research—there’s always something new and different to look into.

I think the whole field of advance characterisation, particularly microscopy, was the most influential factor for my early career. In more recent years, I’ve moved away from an interest in academic research, and prefer to work on applied projects with tangible outcomes. I think the biggest external influence on my professional career has been the environmental challenges that face us. I find it hard to justify the expense and effort of large research programs if they aren’t focussed on meeting our environmental targets, or something equally as important. I think this pragmatic view, that real-world outcomes should trump less applied research endeavours, has had an enduring effect on the research projects that I get excited about, and also those that I don’t.

Scientifically the most difficult thing I’ve worked on is steel strip casting. The rapid solidification excludes equilibrium phases, so weird precipitates form that have never been reported before. It keeps things interesting, but also makes it hard yakka to get anywhere fast. That work was a good prelude to the strange things we find in additively manufactured steel alloys.

I enjoy being part of a recognised group, and the people I’ve met through Materials Australia are really nice human beings. The CMatP (hopefully) shows I’m not just an academic—I have useful skills as well.

The thing that gives me most satisfaction is helping people. Although, often I’m telling people things they don’t want to hear. Maybe that’s why I like the teaching and mentoring aspects of my job.

Many years ago I worked with a rather inspirational man, Professor Pete Bate at the University of Manchester. Most people were scared of him. He was the kind of guy who would start fights in the pub, and he continued to smoke in his office for decades after the ‘No Smoking’ policy was in place,. Having said all of that, Pete was easily the smartest person I ever worked with. He published finite element crystal plasticity using his own code eight or 10 years before it became recognised. He also wrote software that could simulate the texture from phase transformations. Now that he’s retired, I don’t think that capability exists anywhere in the world. One day at the pub he said to me,“If it ain’t been published, it ain’t been done”. It’s a very Mancunian way of telling someone that if you do something in the lab, and don’t tell everyone what you found by analysing the data and publishing it, you’ve wasted your time and resources. It also points to the adage, finish what you started.

My next holiday

Professionally, I’m proud to have received an international award—that was nice recognition. Having a few well cited papers is nice too. I guess they’re like my research ‘street cred’. I think the work I did with the South Australian Health department during the pandemic will probably be a highlight. It was a time of such stress for everyone, and we were getting phone calls and requests almost daily for the first few months for a whole range of tests, advice, options … it was a wild ride! Now we’ve turned that opportunity into a NATA certified surgical mask testing lab, so that’s a nice outcome.

From a personal perspective, I volunteered with the SES for about five years, and went to about 100 emergency events. I don’t think I’m strong enough to hold the jaws-of-life anymore—those things are heavy! Incidentally, they also suffer low cycle fatigue and I’m itching to get the chance to work on it. I think the problem is eminently solvable! Apart from that, my other personal achievement is being able to make a mean cocktail.

Get out of academia before I die. Take a year-long road trip around Australia. Get a salt water aquarium with live coral.