David gives a talk on the fracture behavior of additive manufactured alloys at AAMS
More information about the paper can be found here.
Research
Materials for extreme environments
Our group studies the mechanical properties, particularly the fracture behavior, of structural materials. We are interested in understanding how these properties emerge from phenomena that occur across multiple length scales (from the electronic structure of materials to micron-scale mechanisms of plastic deformation), so that we can design more damage-tolerant materials.
Our research group is led by Dr. David Cook, Assistant Professor in Materials at the Department of Engineering in the University of Cambridge. Prior to joining Cambridge, David was a postdoc at Lawrence Berkeley National Labs. David obtained his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) from UC Berkeley in 2025 and his BS in MSE from UC Berkeley in 2022.
Topics of recent interest include:
- Plastic deformation under exotic stress/strain states
- The slip-twinning transition
- Dislocation nucleation from interfaces
- Additive manufactured nano- and micro-structures
- Mechanical and structural instabilities
- Kink band formation
Group news
View archiveOur paper on ductile-to-brittle transitions is accepted to Nature!
Our recent work on novel ways to suppress the ductile-to-brittle transition in body-centered cubic materials has been accepted in Nature.
David joins the Department of Engineering at Cambridge as an Assistant Professor
David is launching the Cook Lab and is accepting PhD applicants.
Contact
Join the group
We are happy to consider applications for PhD students and postdocs. Please email Dr. David Cook with any enquiries.