Brian graduated in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University in 1978 and obtained his PhD, also from Cambridge, in 1981. He spent 1 year working at the Centre d'Etudes Nucleaire de Grenoble as an ESA Fellow before spending 2 years in Cambridge University Engineering Department as a Research Fellow. He was in the University of Oxford, Department of Materials from 1983 -1998 as a Research Fellow, Lecturer and Reader in Materials Engineering, where he was Director of the Oxford Centre for Advanced Materials and Composites. He was appointed Professor in Materials Science at the Materials Science Centre in 1999. He was elected a member of the World Academy of Ceramics in 2004.

Fundamental aspects of fluid/substrate interactions in ink jet printing. Manufacture of structural and functional components by inkjet printing. Fabrication of tissue scaffolds by novel 3-Dimensional manufacturing methods. Deposition and patterning of living cells and biological molecules by inkjet printing. Mechanical properties of nanostructured materials. Manufacture of nanostructured materials using nanoporous anodic alumina templates. Characterisation of the mechanical properties of tissues using nanoindentation. Characterisatio of the mechanical properties of tissues using acoustic microscopy.

Vasanthavel, S., Derby, B., & Kanaan, S. (2017). Tetragonal to cubic transformation of SiO2 stabilized ZrO2 polymorph through dysprosium substitutions. Inorganic Chemistry. DOI: 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.6b02361. Publication link: c4122f43-3342-4fed-a0de-26a9624bc3ef Markey, A., Workman, V., Bruce, I., Woolford, T. J., Derby, B., Miller, A. F., ... Saiani, A. (2016). Peptide hydrogel in-vitro non-inflammatory potential. Bio-medical materials and engineering. . Publication link: 38e4dcaf-f6f1-44c8-b904-2d79ad1f639b Akhtar, R., Graham, H., Derby, B., Sherratt, M., Trafford, A., Chadwick, R., & Gavara, N. (2016). Frequency-modulated atomic force microscopy localises viscoelastic remodelling in the ageing sheep aorta. Journal of the Mechanical Behaviour of Materials, 64, 10-17. DOI: 10.1016/j.jmbbm.2016.07.018. Publication link: 1c429930-55a2-4249-9caf-73f771704014 Lin, Y., Liu, F., Casano Carnicer, G., Bhavsar, R., Kinloch, I., & Derby, B. (2016). Pristine Graphene Aerogels by Room Temperature Freeze Gelation. Advanced Materials, 28(36), 7993-8000. DOI: 10.1002/adma.201602393. Publication link: 54617120-6153-43f1-9489-24abb3838a1c Groll, J., Boland, T., Blunk, T., Burdick, J. A., Cho, D. W., Dalton, P. D., ... Malda, J. (2016). Biofabrication: reappraising the definition of an evolving field. Biofabrication, 8(1), 13001. DOI: 10.1088/1758-5090/8/1/013001. Publication link: d0671611-bfd1-445a-bcc2-a548fff7b3da | PubMed:26744832 Lewis, E., Brent, J., Derby, B., Haigh, S., & Lewis, D. (2016). Solution Processing of Two-Dimensional Black Phosphorus. Chemical Communications. . Publication link: e5dec9c7-8311-4e79-9a37-b8761bd68bb0 Yeung, C-Y., Holmes, D. F., Thomason, H., Stephenson, C., Derby, B., & Hardman, M. J. (2016). An ex vivo porcine skin model to evaluate pressure-reducing devices of different mechanical properties used for pressure ulcer prevention. Wound Repair and Regeneration. . Publication link: ff95205f-ba89-423e-b49b-60906c960d22