The UNSW Scientia Fellowship is a cornerstone program of the UNSW 2025 strategy. Its aim is to transform high performers into next generation leaders and mentors.

The research goal in this Fellowship is to design next generation Ni-based superalloys via advancements in conventional and advanced manufacturing methods.

The demand for Ni-based superalloys that can withstand high mechanical loads under harsh, high-temperature environments for aerospace, and defence applications is continuously growing.

Here, the development of superalloys has been the critical enabler for jet-powered civil aviation over decades. Today, the key reason for their ongoing technological success is their multi-scale hierarchical microstructural design achieving contributions from across all known strengthening mechanisms. Thus, the critical mechanical properties in high-temperature strength, creep and fatigue resistance have been improved remarkably, now allowing turbine entry temperatures beyond 1400°C.

A typical microstructure of an advanced Ni-based superalloy for my target applications features (i) interfaces (e.g. grain boundaries), (ii) micron-scale precipitates, (iii) complex stacked nano-scale precipitates, and (iv) solute atom segregation at interfaces. This multi-scale hierarchy will provide superior mechanical properties if the desired microstructural evolution can be achieved via advancements in processing methods. Here, critical enablers can be (a) advancements in conventional thermo-mechanical processing or, (b) more recently, metal additive manufacturing methods. The success of this Scientia fellowship will largely be based on advanced microscopy over several length scales.