Wilson, Sandra

Professor Sandra Wilson has a personal chair in Ecological Metal Design. She is a contemporary jeweller, silversmith, researcher and educator and is passionate about the transformative power of making things. Her jewellery and metal design has won awards from the Scottish Arts Council, the Audi Foundation for Innovation, and the British European Designers Group. Her work is also in the collection of HRH Princess Anne.

Her research explores creating new surface finishes and alloys from precious metals such as gold and copper recovered from electronic waste. She collaborates with the Love Chemistry Group at Edinburgh University who have developed a new ligand that specifically targets gold.  She is a co-investigator on the EPSRC funded Chemical recycling of electronic waste for sustainable livelihoods and material consumption in India with partners at Edinburgh University, the National Institute of Design, and the Indian Institute of Technology (BHU) in India. The project aims to generate a new metal supply chain for rural artisanal jewellers in India and to create a formalised e-waste system. 

She has also researched the lesser known silversmithing technique ‘Dutch raising’ and was responsible for bringing the European Silversmiths Forum (Hammerclub) exhibition and symposium to Dundee in May 2019.

Previous funded research projects have included Pulse: The Stuff of Life exploring the beauty of 3D protein architecture and thoughtfully integrating traditional hand fabrication and new technologies such as 3D printing. From Pulse, work was included in three exhibitions, namely; Origin: Ur Sprung Schmuck – an international touring exhibition including Inhorgenta the worlds' largest jewellery fair in Munich; Nature Inspired Design – an AHRC/EPSRC national initiative - Design for the 21stCentury; and Design4science an international touring exhibition and symposium highlighting cutting edge design and science. Co-investigator on Imprints: Public Responses to Identity Management technologies and practices a major £1.9m EPSRC research project. This research was concerned with the way that new wearable technologies could empower the user to express their fluid identities rather than be used for surveillance.