Dr Ma obtained his PhD in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of New South Wales (UNSW). He is an Electron Microscopist, having carried out nearly 8 years of research work in the world class electron microscope centers in both Sydney (Electron Microscope Unit at UNSW) and Melbourne (Bio21 Institute). He also worked as an Engineer at the AJAX Engineering Fasteners (Melbourne) for 12 months. He has considerable research experience, particularly in focused ion beam (FIB) related research as well as in using both transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). His primary area of expertise is in the relationship between microstructure and properties of materials, including metals and ceramics. His current research interest focuses on the shape memory alloy (SMA) related research, including the processing of SMA, and the investigation on its mechanical properties.

Titanium-based shape memory alloy (Ti-based SMA), TiN-based thin film deformation, electron microscopies (SEM and TEM), focused ion beam (FIB) related research, intermetallics and equal channel angular pressing (ECAP).