News

Justin Mulvey is a fourth-year undergraduate student in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. In his time at UC Davis, he has been heavily involved on campus, in the MSE department and as a researcher in professor Adam Moule's research group.

Since studying engineering in college, Assistant Professor Roopali Kukreja has been fascinated with how and why people choose different materials for different applications. Learning about various materials gave her a greater appreciation for the field of materials science and engineering and she has stuck with it since. Now a faculty member at UC Davis, she works to understand the dynamics in magnetic materials.

Assistant Professor Jeremy Mason often finds himself in the middle of things at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. In his two years with the department, he has stepped up in teaching and in his computational materials research, making him one of the department’s freshest, active and innovative faces.

Since joining the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) in 2015, Susan Gentry has made waves in the College of Engineering through her assistant professor of teaching materials science and engineering position. She has overseen MSE curriculum development and education research, all while cementing herself in the department and forming relationships with her colleagues and the students she teaches each quarter.

By Noah Pflueger-Peters

Assistant Professor of Teaching Materials Science and Engineering Susan Gentry has received the 2019 ASM Bradley Stoughton Award for Young Teachers. The award, named after former ASM president Bradley Stoughton, recognizes young teachers in materials science and engineering who excel in inspiring and imparting knowledge to the students they teach.

By Brady Oppenheim

The UC Davis Department of Materials Science and Engineering congratulates graduate student Christine Smudde on being named a 2019 NASA Space Technology Research Fellowship (NSTRF19) recipient.

Through her submitted proposal – “Microscopic Evaluation of Additively Manufactured Materials through Fatigue Crack Growth Analysis” – she was awarded a four-year, $80,000-per-year fellowship to support her innovative research, including stipend, tuition, fees, research materials and travel to a NASA laboratory.

The Material Advantage Student Chapter (MASC) at UC Davis hosted its annual Materials Magic Show at the 105th Picnic Day on April 13, 2019 and drew large crowds for each of its three shows in the Science Lecture Hall.

The student-run show introduces Picnic Day audiences to the world of materials science and engineering through magic. This year’s show was Incredibles-themed, as the students performed skits and experiments in costumes and told a story using materials.

By Brady Oppenheim

Materials Science and Engineering undergraduate students Nadia Albayati and Joyce Christiansen-Salameh presented posters at the January 18 – 20 American Physical Society’s (APS) Conference for Undergraduate Women (CUWiP), whose regional event took place at UC Davis.

By Brady Oppenheim

Materials Science and Engineering students shared their cutting-edge research at the March 4 – 8 American Physical Society (APS) March Meeting in Boston:

By Brady Oppenheim

The UC Davis Materials Science and Engineering Department congratulates undergraduate Peifen Lyu, who has been named a Santa Clara Valley Chapter of the American Society for Materials (ASM) and the Society for the Advancement of Material and Process (SAMPE) scholarship recipient.

Lyu is one of two recipients of this year’s honor, which provides $2,000 each to selected applicants concentrating in materials science and technology and related engineering disciplines from Northern California colleges and universities.

By Brady Oppenheim

The UC Davis Materials Science and Engineering Department congratulates Erdem Eren, whose poster was recognized with a graduate-student award at the Minerals, Metals & Materials Society (TMS) Annual Meeting.

Eren is part of the department’s Mason Research Group, which specializes in theoretical and computational techniques to study the evolution of materials.

By Bonnie Dickson

The UC Davis Department of Materials Science and Engineering recently established several new fellowships and awards to support graduate engineering research and education. Luis Sotelo Martin, a first-year doctoral student in the department, is the first recipient of a graduate student researcher award generously funded by Jeffery and Marsha Gibeling.

Ricardo Castro, Professor and Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Studies, was named a Fellow of the American Ceramic Society (ACerS).

Materials Science and Engineering Lecturer PSOE Susan Gentry received the 2019 Materials Division New Educator Award from the American Society for Engineering Education for her achievements and commitment to education in materials science and engineering. She will receive the award and give a talk at the ASEE Annual Conference on June 17 or 18 in Tampa, FL.

Blacutt-Underwood Distinguished Professor of Materials Science and Engineering Subhash Risbud received the Engineer's Council's 2019 Distinguished Educator award. The award is the Engineer’s Council’s highest honor in engineering education and leadership.

A team of UC Davis researchers led by Assistant Professor Roopali Kukreja recently published their findings that magnetite’s transition between metal and insulator is a two-step process, instead of a one-step process like previously thought.

Magnetite is a unique material in that depending on temperature, it can either be a metal, which conducts electricity well, or an insulator, which does not. Kukreja’s team investigated this transition, theorizing that it has to do with the arrangement of the material’s electrons, and found this two-step process.

Catherine Harvey, a Ph.D. student of Professor Subhash Risbud, has received a Fulbright Open Study/Research Award for her project, “Multifunctional Therapeutic Bioactive Glass Scaffolds as an Alternative for Bone Regeneration.” She will conduct her research with Professor María Vallet-Regí in the Department of Inorganic and Bioinorganic Chemistry at the Complutense University of Madrid from September 2018-19.

The American Ceramic Society (ACerS) has established a new award named after Distinguished Professor Alexandra Navrotsky that recognizes innovation in experimental thermodynamics of solids.

The award, which will be given every other year, was established by a gift from Navrotsky herself to the society to recognize and promote exceptional thermodynamics research over a two-year period. Winners will receive a $5,000 prize and will present their research at the ACerS annual meeting.

Assistant Professor Roopali Kukreja has received a 2019 Air Force Office of Science and Research (AFOSR) Young Investigator Research grant for her proposal, “Unraveling the Speed Limit of Magnetization Dynamics in Magnetic Heterostructures.”

Kukreja studies methods to manipulate magnetism in nanomaterials at femtosecond (1x10-15 second) timescales. She uses x-rays to better understand the fundamental mechanisms that enable her to control magnetism with optical lasers.

Materials science and engineering distinguished professor Alexandra Navrotsky recently co-founded Thermodynamics Consortium (ThermoCon), which aims to connect thermodynamics researchers across multiple disciplines to promote thermodynamics research and deepen ties between academia, industry, national labs and equipment manufacturers.

Jonathan Thomas is a passionate undergraduate student in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE). He works with carbon fiber composites in the ACERS laboratory on campus and is an active member of the Formula SAE car team at UC Davis. The department sat down with him to chat about his life and undergraduate career.

MSE: What activities (clubs, jobs, research, internship, etc.) have you been involved in during your time at UC Davis? 

Max Zielsdorf is an undergraduate transfer student who works with nanoceramics in Professor Ricardo Castro’s lab. He is also an officer for the UC Davis chapter of MASC for the 2018-19 school year. The Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) sat down with him to chat about his life and undergraduate career at UC Davis.

Doctoral student Tucker Murrey earned his bachelor’s degree in Material Science and Engineering-Nanoscience and Molecular Engineering in fall 2014 from the University of Washington before joining UC Davis in 2015.

As a member of Professor Adam Moulé’s lab, Tucker works on two projects: characterizing the structural properties of semiconducting polymer thin films with elastic neuron scattering techniques and upscaling a novel photo-thermal patterning process for organic photovoltaic applications.

Lauren Hughes graduated in 2018 with a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering. During her time at UC Davis, Lauren received a prestigious NSF Graduate Research Fellowship for her graduate-level research work with electron microscopy. Below, Lauren reflects on her time in the Materials Science and Engineering graduate program and where she is headed next.

Department of Materials Science and Engineering: What was your favorite thing about Davis?