Departmental homepageDr Shah is Associate Professor in Materials Science and Design at the Department of Architecture, and co-leads the Centre for Natural Material Innovation (CNMI). Shah is a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining.
Engaging with the wider community, Shah has contributed to policy briefings nationally (UK Parliament’s Environmental Audit Committee and RIBA) and internationally (COP26), and to the design of products such as CE-Certified Covid19-control face shields, Design Rights protected bamboo cricket bats and biocomposite boat hulls, as well as to public exhibitions at the Dutch Design Week 2021, London Design Biennale 2021 and Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition 2019. His research frequently features in national and international media, such as on sustainable materials for wind turbines on BBC Radio 5, hemp for future homes on BBC Reel, biomaterials for the built environment on RIBA and Dezeen, natural and unnatural silks on VICE News, and bamboo cricket bats in The Telegraph and The Guardian.
Prior to his appointment in Cambridge in 2015, he was a postdoctoral researcher on silk-based and biological composites at the University of Oxford's Silk Group (Department of Zoology), having obtained his PhD on developing plant fibre composites for wind energy applications at the University of Nottingham's Composite Research Group (Faculty of Engineering).
Dr Shah teaches on the BA (Hons) Architecture and MDes Design Triposes at the Department of Architecture, leading courses on materials, fabrication and sustainable design. He also supervises Part IIB MEng individual projects for the Department of Engineering. On postgraduate courses, Dr Shah is course module lead for the MSt Architecture Degree Apprenticeship and serves as examiner on the MAUS and IDBE programmes. He is also Summer Programme Course Director and Tutor at the Institute for Continuing Education, running adult-learning courses on materials and the environment. He has a PGCert in Teaching & Learning in Higher Education from Cambridge and is an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Dr Shah co-led the development of the brand-new interdisciplinary Design Tripos with colleagues, securing substantial funding from the University (Academic Seed Funding (£581,000) for initial development, SIF fund (£811,000) for implementation). He was Department Undergraduate Admissions Director in 2022-24 and plays an active role in diversifying admissions & outreach at St John’s College and within the University.
Shah Co-Leads the Centre for Natural Material Innovation (CNMI). Shah specialises in natural materials science and technology. Combining sustainability with performance and functionality in natural materials is a major driver of his research.Understanding the relationships between materials, society, technology, history and nature, Shah’s research aims to design and innovate with natural materials by exploring low-energy methods of manufacture, improving structural performance, introducing multifunctionalities, translating across disciplines and application sectors. A megawatt wind turbine with a wooden tower and flax biocomposite blades. An affordable ankle-foot disability orthosis from recycled plastic waste. An off-grid low-energy house constructed from industrial hemp materials. A room-temperature processing method for silk-like textile fibres. A green policy that weaves agroforestry and construction in a circular bioeconomy approach enabling aggressive decarbonisation. These are examples of how Shah’s research and design at the CNMI imagines the replacement of anthropogenic materials with bio-based materials, such as engineered timber, bamboo, natural fibres and their composites.Shah and colleagues have been awarded over £16million in total collaborative research project activity. Shah’s work is published in over 75 peer-reviewed journal papers, has attracted numerous awards such as the International Quadrant Award 2015 and the JEC Asia 2013 Innovation Award, has been exhibited at the Cambridge Botanic Garden Walking Trail 2023, Dutch Design Week 2021, London Design Biennale 2021 and 2023, and Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition 2019, and regularly appears in international media such as on BBC, Reuters, Guardian, Dezeen, and Telegraph.
Cruz, M.V., Shah, D.U., Warner, N.C., McCune, J.A., Scherman, O.A. Facile, energy efficient microscale fibrillation of polyacrylamides under ambient conditions. Advanced Materials (IF = 30.8), 2022. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/adma.202201577
Melelli, A., Shah, D.U., Hapsari, G., Cortopassi, R., Durand, S., Arnould, O., Placet, V., Benazeth, D., Beaugrand, J., Jamme, F., Bourmaud, A. Lessons on textile history and fibre durability from a 4000-year-old Egyptian flax yarn. Nature Plants, 2021. 7: 1200–1206. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41477-021-00998-8
Toumpanaki, E., Shah, D.U., Eichhorn, S.J., Beyond What Meets the Eye: Imaging and Imagining Wood Mechanical-Structural Properties. Advanced Materials, 2020: 2001613. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/adma.202001613
Bourmaud, A., Beaugrand, J., Shah, D.U., Placet, V., Baley, C. Towards the design of high-performance plant fibre composites. Progress in Materials Science, 2018. 97: p. 347-408. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0079642518300653
