Moataz was born in Egypt, attending Orman Experimental Language School in Giza. He received his BSc (highest honours) and MSc in mechanical and materials/manufacturing engineering, 2001 and 2003 respectively, from the American University in Cairo, Egypt. He went on to study for a PhD in Metallurgy and Materials Science from the University of Birmingham between 2003 and 2007. He then worked as a research fellow between January 2007 and June 2010 at the, University of Manchester’s School of Materials with Prof. Michael Preuss. He was a member of the Stress & Damage Characterisation Unit (led by Professor Phil Withers), which is the largest research group in Europe with a research portfolio focused on neutron and synchrotron x-ray diffraction. During that period, Moataz had a brief spell at Osaka University in Japan, where he worked on in-situ confocal microscopy in Prof. Komizo’s laboratory.

From June 2010, he returned to the University of Birmingham as a lecturer in advanced materials processing. He was appointed to a chair in advanced materials processing in August 2014. He leads the Advanced Materials and Processing Lab (AMPLab) www.birmingham.ac.uk/amplab . The group has raised over £15M of research funding since 2010.

Moataz teaches undergraduate and postgraduate modules on advanced manufacturing and aerospace materials.

Moataz has given several TV interviews and delivered lectures (in Arabic and English) on additive manufacturing and career development in different charities across the world (found here, external link).

RESEARCH THEMES

1. Laser Net Shape Fabrication (using blown powder and laser powder bed).
2. Additive manufacturing of superelastic materials.
3. Additive manufacturing of stents and drug-delivering implants.
4. Additive manufacturing of soft magnets.
5. Solid-Solid and Liquid-Solid Phase Transformations due to Friction-based Welding (linear friction, inertia, and friction stir) and laser fabrication (blown powder and laser bed) of Ti, Al, Ni, and ferrous alloys.
6. Residual Stress, Micromechanics, and phase transformations Characterisation using Neutron and Synchrotron X-ray Diffraction.
7. Phase Transformations in Ti-Alloys and Ni-superalloys.
8. In-Situ Observation of the Phase Transformations in Metallic Materials using High Temperature Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy.
9. Comparative Quantitative Microstructural Characterisation using electron microscopy and x-ray diffraction for structure-property modelling.
10. Severe Plastic Deformation in Al-Alloys: the consolidation behaviour of nanocrystalline powders, in combination with subsequent equal channel angular processing.
11. Plastic Deformation and Recrystallisation in Al-alloys.
12. Alloy development

RESEARCH ACTIVITY

The current projects are available under the student supervision section. Some of the topics include:

1. Mitigation of Cracking due to Laser Bed Fabrication of Nickel-base superalloys.
2. Microstructural Characteristics of Direct Laser Deposition (DLD) products in steels, Ni-superalloys, and Ti alloys.
3. Netshape Powder HIPping of ODS steels.
4. AM and HIPping of refractory metals.
5. Alloy development Laser Powder Bed Fabrication of Metallic Materials.

• Associate Module in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, The University of Birmingham, 2012.
• PhD (Metallurgy & Materials Science), University of Birmingham, 2007 (Degree conferred 2008)
• MSc (Materials & Manufacturing), The American University in Cairo, 2003
• BSc Hons (Mechanical Engineering), The American University in Cairo (Egypt), 2001.