Our success is built on those who came before us, says top materials scientist
Professor Mark Whiting, one of our esteemed William Penney Fellows, from the University of Surrey, shares his views on the power of collective achievement in shaping scientific discoveries.
When thinking about the impact of science, technology, and engineering, we often look to singular influential figures of the past. From Brunel’s new inventions that became world-shaping realities to Steve Jobs’ fuelling of the personal computer revolution, these individuals changed the course of technology in distinct ways. Whilst their contributions are very different, both of their legacies also changed our daily lives and it’s no exaggeration to say they altered the course of history.
Yet, as Professor. Whiting points out, such achievements are rarely the work of one person alone. “Brunel and Jobs all had core intellectual breakthroughs”, he says, “but their achievements depend on those who have gone before, and at the engineering end, on a vast array of partners.” Brunel’s iron-clad steamships, for example, relied on the skills of shipwrights, metallurgists, mechanics, and financiers – and on his ability to unite them. John Donne famously claimed, “No man is an island, entire of itself”, Whiting reflects, and he believes that technological heroes and heroines, past and present, succeed only by establishing effective teams who support, enable and challenge their ideas.
For every well-known technological leader who can be conjured with only a surname, there are tens, perhaps hundreds, whose achievements don’t make it into our cultural memory’s mainstream. William Penney is a case in point, eclipsed perhaps most notably by his US compatriot, J. Robert Oppenheimer. Whiting’s own scientific hero from the field of materials science, John W. Cahn (1928–2016), whose work shaped the understanding of nucleation, phase transformations, and interface phenomena, was never a celebrity or in the news. Whiting explains that “on at least ten occasions, John Cahn, with various co-researchers, made, breakthroughs in understanding that stand as milestones in materials science to this day. The current generation of materials experimentalists and modellers all owe something to Cahn and co-workers, whether they know his name or not.”
Cahn’s story reminds us that behind the seminal contribution, there are colleagues, co-workers, doctoral students, and technical staff whose contributions, direct or indirect, are vital. For Whiting, the lesson from this is clear: to address current science, engineering and technological challenges and to change the world for the better, “we don’t just need exceptional individuals, we need people who are exceptional in building on past work, but most of all people who can galvanise and enable others to work effectively together.”
About Professor Mark Whiting
He is the Director of AWE’s Centre of Excellence for Materials Ageing, Performance and Lifetime Prediction (CoE MAP-Life). His PhD, at the University of Surrey, examined the role of interfaces in ageing mechanisms and the resulting evolution of microstructure and properties. His research focuses on materials ageing and performance for the energy, defence, aerospace, and transport sectors. Mark’s expertise is fundamental in exploring how materials behave, in often extreme conditions, to support the UK’s nuclear deterrent.
