Dear friend Hind Abdellaoui

Ah, the quest for untamed knowledge! I shall delve into the realms of materials, polymers, composites, cement, and sustainability to uncover the uncharted territories that crave more basic and applied research. Brace yourself for my unfiltered opinions!

1. Eco-friendly Composites: The world yearns for sustainable materials, yet eco-friendly composites remain relatively unexplored. Researchers should focus on developing novel composites using renewable resources, recycled materials, or bio-based polymers. This promises a leap towards greener and more sustainable industries.

2. Advanced Cementitious Materials: While cement is widely used in construction, there's a lack of comprehensive research on advanced cementitious materials. Investigating innovative cement formulations, admixtures, and reinforcement techniques could lead to more durable, cost-effective, and eco-conscious concrete solutions.

3. Biodegradable Polymers: In the era of plastic pollution, biodegradable polymers are the unsung heroes. More research should go into enhancing the mechanical properties, degradation rates, and scalability of biodegradable polymers for diverse applications.

4. Materials for Extreme Environments: Humanity's progress extends to harsh environments like space, deep-sea, and extreme temperatures. The exploration of materials and coatings that endure these conditions remains relatively untouched.

5. Circular Economy for Materials: As sustainability becomes paramount, the concept of a circular economy for materials deserves greater attention. This includes exploring methods to recycle, repurpose, and recover valuable materials to reduce waste and conserve resources.

6. Energy Storage Materials: As energy demands surge, we need efficient energy storage materials. Uncovering novel materials for batteries, supercapacitors, and other energy storage technologies can revolutionize the clean energy landscape.

7. Smart Materials and Sensors: The world thirsts for intelligent materials that adapt, sense, and respond to external stimuli. Unraveling the potential of smart materials and sensors holds the key to groundbreaking advancements in various fields.

8. Biomimetic Materials: Nature is a Master of Design. Exploring biomimetic materials, which mimic biological structures and functions, can inspire novel solutions for diverse applications, from medicine to engineering.

9. Sustainable Construction Technologies: The construction industry's environmental impact demands disruptive solutions. Research on sustainable construction technologies, like 3D printing, self-healing materials, and eco-friendly insulation, is a worthy pursuit.

10. Materials for Climate Change Mitigation: With climate change as a pressing global challenge, we must intensify research on materials that mitigate its effects, such as carbon capture materials and greenhouse gas reduction catalysts.

Remember, my dear interlocutor Hind Abdellaoui, these are but a glimpse of the vast opportunities that await intrepid researchers. The future of materials science and engineering lies in the hands of those who dare to venture into the uncharted territories of knowledge and innovation!

Good question.

I find that some of the most exciting topics I studied were often those into which I stumbled accidentally and not really by prudent planning, hence, I feel that it might be a wise strategy to follow two strands:

1) just follow your gut feeling and your nose and keep your eyes open on unexpected and strange and outlier type of phenomena where real scientific gold nuggets might be hidden, so to say, watch out off the beaten track.

2) looking for large scale societal needs on the other hand may indeed also be a pertinent strategy because I sometimes feel that our materials science community is a bit conservative and not really taking many risks in such areas nowadays, often rather following topics in which the (expected) impact is relatively high. My personal taste in this category are for instance research topics related to materials related questions such as (a) sustainability/ sustainable metallurgy / sustainable cement etc (i.e. real reduction of carbon dioxide emissions, beyond the usual bla bla); (b) materials for future water supply; (c) machine learning in material science and engineering ; (d) large (huge) scale energy storage for buffering abundant sustainable and grid electricity (i.e. Not just lithium based batteries for vehicles; but land based huge storage capacity): (e) electrochenistry and corrosion of materials (i.e. longevity) etc. etc.

I feel that - for getting good ideas in such directions - it is sometimes more helpful to read financial and business newspapers rather than our usual community material science journals, which, as I mentioned before, are sometimes chasing citation-measured impact alone but not real relevance for society and industry and not real curiosity-driven topics that sit between the established chairs. Open your eyes and look around you and think urself what your local, wider, or global society really needs from us materials scientists? Ideas will then come en gros.

Good luck.

One example what I chase at the moment :-)

Article The Materials Science behind Sustainable Metals and Alloys

Dear Kaushik Shandilya and Dierk Raabe

Thank you for your informative answers.

I read carefully with the interest of meeting the end with industry needs and real world applications.

I totally agree with your and, as researchers, the most important is to open eyes on the market/ industry needs and seems that each field is a sea of case studies.

Actually, the researchers focus on researches and topics that could be easily published and the majority investigates on the properties without studying the real industrial applications. the research is like to ways: from research to industry and from industry to research.

Thank you for your ideas, it gives a new insight on what to focus on.

Kindly, Hind

The scientific literature is continually evolving, and there are always emerging topics that require more basic and applied research to expand our understanding and address practical challenges. While the specific uncovered topics may vary over time and across different fields, here are some general areas that have been identified as needing more research:

These topics represent only a snapshot of the areas where more research is warranted. Advances in science and technology, coupled with societal and environmental challenges, will continuously drive the identification of new research priorities. Researchers and funding agencies play a crucial role in addressing these gaps and pushing the boundaries of human knowledge and innovation.