Granta Design Assistant Professor
Academic Division: Mechanics, Materials and Design
Telephone: 748570
Email: ms2932@eng.cam.ac.uk
Research interests
My research focuses on metal additive manufacturing (AM), characterization and testing, and microstructure engineering of structural alloys. I’m very interested in studying how the point-by-point material forming process typical of AM yields the microstructure heterogeneity that is frequently observed in metal parts. This heterogeneity is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it leads to large property scatter and casts uncertainty over parts performance, hindering the adoption of additive technologies by the industry. On the other hand, it may impart exceptional mechanical properties, which even surpass those found in conventionally produced materials. My goal is to understand and control this microstructure heterogeneity to design and produce materials with "architected microstructures" which will exhibit more predictable behavior and tailored functionalities. My vision is that this unique capability will enable a new design paradigm in metal AM for producing both geometry-and microstructure-optimized parts.
Research projects
- Advanced optical microscopy techniques (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41524-021-00688-1)
- In-situ monitoring during fusion-based additive manufacturing processes (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addma.2022.103127)
- Site-specific microstructure control in metal additive manufacturing (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addma.2020.101809)
- Recrystallisation phenomena in metals produced by additive manufacturing (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2020.09.015)
- Experimental investigations of grain boundary crystallography-property relationships (https://doi.org/10.1038/npjcompumats.2016.16)
- Hydrogen embrittlement of alloys (https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms7164)
Other positions
Fellow of St John's College.
Biography
Dr. Seita is a Granta Design Assistant Professor in the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge, where he leads the Additive Microstructure Engineering Laboratory (AddME Lab). The goal of the AddME Lab is to understand and control the microstructure complexity brought about by additive manufacturing processes to design more sustainable metallic materials with improved reliability and performance. Before joining the University of Cambridge, Dr. Seita was Nanyang Assistant Professor at NTU Singapore, where he held appointments in the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, the School of Materials Science and Engineering, and the Asian School of the Environment. During his tenure at NTU, Dr. Seita was awarded the prestigious NRF Fellowship—a S$3M individual grant for early-career scientists—to develop novel additive manufacturing strategies for microstructure control of metal alloys. He earned his Ph.D. in Materials Science from ETH Zurich in 2012 and then spent three years as a Postdoctoral Associate in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT. In 2022, he was selected as the recipient of the TMS Young Innovator in the Materials Science of Additive Manufacturing Award.
Department role and responsibilities