Peter Hedström

In many cases, the development of new products, industrial processes and efficiency improvements requires new materials with the right properties. However, materials development today is extremely resource intensive as progress is made by trial and error. 

Peter Hedström develops methods to experimentally analyse the structures of different materials in order to be able to reach conclusions about their properties. The aim is to develop new methods to design new materials virtually, which would be more efficient than current methods. 

This research is done using a number of different technologies, ranging from electron and ion microscopy in a lab environment to large scale neutron and synchrotron radiation infrastructures. These large scale infrastructures make it possible to study how a material behaves in real time when it is being manufactured or used. 

Experiments can provide a better understanding of the fundamental mechanisms that dictate the behaviour of different materials and open up opportunities to build physical or statistical models of this behaviour. These models can make materials development less resource intensive and more rapid in the future.