What material gets thicker when stretched and is found in both cat skin and Christmas trees?
It sounds like a riddle. For Dr Shruti Mandhani, it’s her research career.
Mandhani is a research fellow at Sheffield Hallam University, specialising in mechanical metamaterials and is known for her work on auxetic materials. They have unusual properties, if you stretch an elastic band, it gets thinner; when an auxetic material is stretched, it gets thicker!
The counterintuitive behaviour of auxetic materials comes from structure, not chemistry.
Mandhani often turns to nature for inspiration, her PhD research involved an auxetic molecule found in Christmas trees.
Like the auxetic materials she works on, Mandhani’s career has expanded under strain, but this has driven her commitment to inspire the next generation of female scientists and engineers. A message that resonates strongly with International Women’s Day’s call to build gender equality through support, opportunity and shared resources.
Her own journey began with exactly that kind of support. Raised in Abu Dhabi, she was encouraged by her mother, an orthodontist who emphasised education, and her father, who challenged her with engineering problems. She later moved to India to complete a Bachelor of Technology in IT Engineering, followed by an MSc in Biomaterials and Regenerative Medicine, before achieving a PhD in auxetic materials at Sheffield Hallam University.
Inspired by her family’s encouragement to pursue STEM, Mandhani has always been keen to engage the public in her research. Her outreach work embodies the theme of 2026 International Women’s Day, Give to Gain. She works hard to inspire young people, especially girls, to see themselves in science. In 2019, she won the Three Minute Thesis competition, and her most recent outreach project involved school children across Manchester designing their own shoes based on auxetic structures and bringing them to life using 3D printing. Projects like this show students that science involves creativity, design and problem solving.
Such work remains vital. Women made up only 29.4% of the UK STEM workforce in 2023, and a survey found that only 8% of people can name a female contributor to these fields. International Women’s Day highlights the importance of changing that, not only by celebrating women in various roles, including STEM, but by removing barriers that prevent them from staying.
For Mandhani, that challenge became personal after the birth of her daughter. Returning to academia after maternity leave, she found it both familiar and disorienting. “The lab equipment is where you left it,” she said, “but the research has moved on, and the person next to you is new.”
Supportive colleagues and flexible working arrangements helped her rebuild her research life. But structural support does not erase social expectations. A study from the USA found 43% of new mothers in STEM leave full-time roles after their first child, compared with 23% of new fathers. Mandhani reflected on the persistent pressure mothers face to be primary caregivers and the sense that whatever choice they make about family or career is open to judgment. “It feels like a no-win situation,” she said.
Before becoming a parent, long hours felt normal. Today, she aims for balance, even if that sometimes comes with “parent guilt” at work and “career guilt” at home. Conferences, networking events and informal opportunities often clash with childcare, shaping whose careers progress more smoothly. Encouragingly, she points to small but meaningful changes, such as hybrid conferences and childcare support.
International Women’s Day reminds us that progress in science is not only about discovery, but about who gets the opportunity to discover. Dr Mandhani is helping create space for the future generation of female scientists to thrive.
