About the centre

Last updated 2 September 2025

Firstly, our aim is for materials and the experience of materials to be designed within interconnected systems, taking into account macro-environmental factors and layers of community.
Secondly, our aim is to integrate Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) approaches with Art & Design (A) to generate new STEAM methodological frameworks that support new, more desirable outcomes for materials and materials experience.

Director

Sharon is Professor of Design & Materials, and Director of the RCA’s Materials Science Research Centre. She is responsible for the intellectual and strategic leadership of the Centre, raising research funding, management of staff members, and management of labs. She contributes to cross-College business through a number of committees.

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Reader in Human Experience and Materials

Dr Bruna Petreca is Reader in Human Experience and Materials at the Materials Science Research Centre. She works in the integration of human experience into new areas of materials development: circular economy, digital environments, on-site/on-demand manufacture, human health and wellbeing. Currently, she leads ground-breaking research to deliver new circular fashion-textile experiences and innovative digital tools as the Consumer Experience strand lead in the UKRI Interdisciplinary Textiles Circularity Centre and as Co-I in the EPSRC Consumer Experience Digital Tools for Dematerialisation for the Circular Economy project.

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