Davide De Focatiis

Biography

Dr Davide De Focatiis completed his MEng degree in Engineering Science at the University of Cambridge in 1999. During his Masters research, working with Dr Simon Guest, he discovered a family of biomimetic folding mechanisms based on the folding structure of beech and hornbeam leaves, with applications as deployable structures. From 1999-2003 he studied for a DPhil (Ph.D.) at the Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford, with Dr Zhong You. This work was concerned with the mechanics of a needle-free powder injection device developed by Oxford spin-off PowderJect Pharmaceuticals. After completing his DPhil, he was employed as a Research Assistant in the Solid Mechanics and Materials Engineering group at the Engineering Department, University of Oxford, working under the direction of Prof. C.Paul Buckley, from 2005-2008. This work was part of a large EPSRC funded collaboration following the path of well-characterised polymers from synthesis, through processing into the solid state. Major developments include the formulation of molecularly-aware and process-aware craze initiation criteria, and the development of large-deformation constitutive models for processed amorphous polymer products. In February 2009 he was appointed to a Lectureship in the Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering at the University of Nottingham. In September 2013 he transferred to the Department of Mechanical, Materials and Manufacturing Engineering to better align teaching and research. Besides research on polymers, he teaches an interdisciplinary module on Polymer Engineering (4rd year), a modue on Advanced Rheology and Materials (4th year), and contributes to Mechanics of Solids teaching. He is the department's representative for Mathematics Support.

Research Interest

Dr Davide De Focatiis's main research interests lie in the field of solid state properties of polymers. Current projects are investigating the mechanical response of processed polymers and elastomers, and the effects of the introduction of fillers such as carbon black and carbon nanotubes. The electrical properties of such composites under strain are also being examined with application as large strain sensors. Other areas of interest include constitutive modelling of properties of processed polymers, properties of nanocomposites, flow-induced crystallisation in polymers, and biodegradable and bioresorbable polymers and composites. Dr De Focatiis is a member of the Faculty of Engineering, and of the Department of Mechanical, Materials and Manufacturing Engineering. He has collaborations within Nottingham with the Department of Chemical Engineering, the School of Chemistry and the School of Mathematics, and beyond with the Electrochemistry Laboratory of the Paul Scherrer Institute, Switzerland, and with the research group of Prof. E. Mazza at ETH Zurich.