Professor Adrian Sutton from the Physics Department at Imperial College London presented to prospective international postgraduate students attending a pre-sessional English course to prepare for study at Imperial College London.
Every summer the English Language Support Unit, which is located in the School for Professional Development, runs preparatory English courses for about 100 prospective non-native speaker MSc and PhD students across the range of Imperial College departments. The courses runs throughout July, August and September and include a short series of one-off lectures on topics of wider scientific/technical interest by academics from around the College.
Professor Sutton gave the students a glimpse of his research into the mysterious behaviour of materials, and introduced them to some elegant maths associated with it. For many it was the most complex science lecture they had heard in English, and was an important opportunity to try out their comprehension of a technically demanding subject.
The lecture discussed the distinction between solids and liquids, crystalline and non-crystalline matter, and quasicrystalline matter. Professor Sutton talked about the ubiquitous defects in crystalline materials and their vital role in enabling metals to be deformed into useful objects, and in enabling diffusion in the solid state. The emphasis was on concepts, illustrated with simple maths, and the relevance to our lives through modern technologies.