My research program is mainly focused on alloys or mixtures submitted to a sustained external forcing: such conditions are often met during either the processing of materials (e.g. by ball-milling or during thin film growth) or during the use of these materials (e.g. during frictional wear or under irradiation). Alloys in such environments have been termed "driven alloys." When the intensity of the forcing is high enough, non-equilibrium phases or microstructures can develop. From a practical point of view, these driving forces can have deleterious effects on the properties of materials: for instance precipitates can be dissolved,leading to a loss of mechanical strength. On the other hand, non-equilibrium processing can provide new routes to synthesizing novel materials: e.g., extended solid solutions or functional nanocomposites can be obtained by processing powders with high-energy ball milling or by processing thin films with energetic ion beams.