Associate ProfessorMark Staiger

Over more than two decades, Dr Mark Staiger has developed an interdisciplinary research programme in materials science and engineering focused on using advanced materials to address significant challenges in human health, and environmental sustainability. His career has progressed from fundamental metallurgical science into a diverse portfolio encompassing biodegradable metals, polymers, composites, and bio-based materials.

A major impact of Dr Staiger's research has been his contribution to the development and understanding of biodegradable magnesium-based materials for orthopaedic applications. His research has helped establish the scientific basis for magnesium as a potential alternative to permanent metallic implants, addressing fundamental questions surrounding mechanical performance, corrosion, degradation and the behaviour of magnesium in biological environments. His publications on magnesium as an orthopaedic biomaterial and on the corrosion of biodegradable magnesium implants have become widely cited contributions to the field. Importantly, this research has progressed beyond fundamental materials characterisation towards predictive approaches for the behaviour of biodegradable implants in vivo. More recent work has incorporated corrosion modelling, experimental validation and consideration of deformation introduced during surgical implantation, helping address practical barriers to translating biodegradable magnesium technologies into biomedical applications.

A second major contribution has been Dr Staiger's research into bio-based composite materials, particularly all-cellulose composites. This work has demonstrated the potential for single-polymer composite systems to combine useful mechanical performance with biodegradability, providing an alternative materials paradigm to conventional fibre-reinforced plastics. Research investigating the biodegradation of all-cellulose composites has also addressed an important but previously underexplored aspect of their potential environmental benefit—their end-of-life behaviour.

Dr Staiger has subsequently extended this philosophy into protein-based materials and bioaerogels, investigating how biological resources and agricultural by-products can be transformed into high-value functional materials. His research programme includes protein-based aerogels derived from canola, with potential applications in areas including the delivery of bioactive compounds, pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals. This work represents a shift from simply substituting one conventional material for another towards creating new material platforms from renewable biological resources.

A further dimension of his research impact lies in materials circularity and recycling. His work on recycled thermoplastics and additive manufacturing explores how waste polymer streams can be converted into useful engineering materials while understanding the effects of processing history, degradation and molecular structure on performance. This research addresses a fundamental challenge in the transition towards a circular materials economy: not simply recycling materials, but understanding how they can be repeatedly processed while retaining sufficient engineering performance.

His research has also contributed to the development of materials science capability at the University of Canterbury through the establishment and supervision of interdisciplinary research spanning biomaterials, biocomposites, nanofibrous materials, protein-based materials, polymers and advanced materials characterisation. The breadth of postgraduate research associated with his group demonstrates the translation of this research programme into the training of the next generation of materials researchers and engineers.

His influence has extended beyond his own research group through international publication, collaboration and professional service. His work has attracted substantial international citation, and he has contributed to the development of the field through editorial service for Bioactive Materials, an international journal focused on the interface between materials science and biology.

The overarching impact of Dr Staiger's career lies in establishing a coherent materials-engineering approach to societal challenges: developing materials that can improve healthcare, replacing conventional materials with renewable alternatives, finding higher-value uses for biological resources, and enabling greater circularity of engineered materials. This trajectory—from metals to polymers, from conventional materials to bio-derived materials, and from biomedical applications to environmental sustainability—has established a distinctive and interdisciplinary research profile at the University of Canterbury. His work demonstrates how fundamental materials science can be used as an enabling technology to address two increasingly important global challenges: improving human health while reducing the environmental impact of the materials on which modern society depends.