Summary
Prof Charalambides, CEng, FIMechE, is a Professor in Mechanics of Materials in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Imperial College London. She is the head of the Soft Solids Research group. Prior to her appointment at Imperial as a Lecturer in 1997, she was a Research Associate in the same Department and a Senior Scientist at the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington, Middlesex.
Her published research includes material modelling and mechanical characterisation of soft polymeric solids and specifically foods, micromechanics models of particulate filled polymeric composites as well as cellular structures, experimental and numerical modelling of industrial food processes such as rolling, extrusion and cutting, development of inverse indentation methods material characterisation of polymers, and fracture and deformation in paint and adhesive coatings. She leads the Soft Solids research group. She is currently teaching Mechanics and Advanced Stress Analysis courses; she has lectured Mathematics and Composites Materials courses in the past.
Maria has published over 100 papers and has received funding from industry and RCUK . Her papers were selected as finalist for the 2013 Cahn Prize and Best paper for the IMechE Food Engineer Awards (2007 & 2011). She is the membership secretary of the British Society of Rheology and a Committee member of the Food and Drink Technical Committee of IMechE. Maria has a First Class B.Eng (Hons) in Mechanical Engineering from Imperial College London. She also holds a PhD in Mechanical Engineering, from Imperial College London, on the Delamination of fibre reinforced composites.
Watch Maria's inaugural lecture, "The Hard Science of Soft Materials":
Watch Maria's Science Breaks talk, "Engineering Chocolate":
Publications
Journals
Janas A, Avgerou N, Charalambides MN, et al., 2024, Fracture toughness of aged oil paints, Heritage Science, Vol:12
Samaras G, Bikos D, Cann P, et al., 2024, A multiscale finite element analysis model for predicting the effect of micro-aeration on the fragmentation of chocolate during the first bite, European Journal of Mechanics A: Solids, Vol:104, ISSN:0997-7538
Samaras G, Bikos D, Skamniotis C, et al., 2023, Experimental and computational models for simulating the oral breakdown of food due to the interaction with molar teeth during the first bite, Extreme Mechanics Letters, Vol:62, ISSN:2352-4316, Pages:1-11
Charalambides M, Taylor A, Young C, et al., 2023, A numerical model for predicting the time for crack initiation in wood panel paintings under low-cycle environmentally induced fatigue, Journal of Cultural Heritage, Vol:61, ISSN:1296-2074, Pages:23-31
Bikos D, Samaras G, Cann P, et al., 2023, Destructive and non-destructive mechanical characterisation of chocolate with different levels of porosity under various modes of deformation, Journal of Materials Science, Vol:58, ISSN:0022-2461, Pages:5104-5127