Drexel University Materials Science and Engineering News

Eric Laird and Christopher Li Perspective Featured in Macromolecules Journal

Mon, 20 May 2013

Ph.D. student Eric Laird and advisor Christopher Li have published an invited perspective cover piece on “Structure and Morphology Control in Crystalline Polymer-Carbon Nanotube Nanocomposites” in Macromolecules, the leading journal in polymer science. The perspective presents the recent progresses on the structure, morphology, and related applications of semicrystalline polymer-CNT nanocomposites, work of particular significance from the Soft Materials Lab over the past 8 years.

Six Materials Ph.D. Students Receive 2013 Drexel Engineering Graduate Fellowships

Thu, 16 May 2013

Six materials Ph.D. students have been awarded fellowships from Drexel's College of Engineering. The award recipients are as follows: Harry Brown Fellowship Fund• Shan Cheng (advisor: Christopher Li), $1,000This fund is used to provide financial assistance to graduate level students in the College of Engineering based on academic merit and financial need. George Hill, Jr. Endowed Fellowship Fund• Babak Anasori (advisor: Michel Barsoum), $6,000This fund is used to provide...

Drexel Materials Researchers Develop Battery Technology Improvement

Thu, 16 May 2013

Members of Drexel Materials’ Nanomaterials and MAX Phase Research Groups recently reported on the discovery of a new family of two-dimensional materials called “MXenes.” The materials’ structures are similar to graphene, with which they share many properties, including good electrical conductivity and potential applications in energy storage. Now, in a new paper in Nature Communications, Drexel Materials researchers have demonstrated several new possible avenues for practical...

Ph.D. Alumnus Stephen Niezgoda Appointed Assistant Professor at OSU

Tue, 07 May 2013

Alumnus Stephen Niezgoda (Ph.D. 2010, advisor: Surya Kalidindi) has accepted a joint appointment as assistant professor in both the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Ohio State University (OSU) beginning in August 2013. At OSU, Stephen’s research will focus on developing programs in crystal plasticity and other micromechanics modeling, stochastic approaches to multiscale modeling, computational material...

Drexel Material Advantage Students Visit Washington D.C.

Fri, 26 Apr 2013

Every April materials engineering students from around the country converge in Washington, D.C. for Congressional Visits Day. Organized by Material Advantage, the student professional organization, Congressional Visits Day is designed to raise visibility and support for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

Nina Lane Study of New Two-Dimensional Carbide Published in Europhysics Letters

Thu, 25 Apr 2013

Ph.D. student Nina Lane (advisor: Michel Barsoum), working with Professors Michel Barsoum and James Rondinelli, reports a first-principles study of a new 5d two-dimensional carbide with a graphene-like lattice and semi-metallic behavior. Their article in Europhysics Letters titled, “Correlation effects and spin-orbit interactions in two-dimensional hexagonal 5d transition metal carbides, Tan+1Cn (n=1, 2, 3),” describes how the dimensionality of the pristine sheets due to changes...

2013 ASM International Philadelphia Liberty Bell Chapter Scholarship and Poster Winners Announced

Mon, 22 Apr 2013

Five MSE students received awards at the April 18, 2013 ASM Philadelphia Liberty Bell Chapter Meeting. Undergraduate Ziyin Huang and B.S./M.S. student Pelin Kansu (advisor: Caroline Schauer) were awarded ASM Philadelphia Liberty Bell Chapter Undergraduate Scholarships of $1,500.00 each. Both were acknowledged at the April 18 meeting. Additionally, three MSE Ph.D. students received prizes in the annual C.F. "Chuck" Burns Graduate Student Poster Contest. Cole Smith, (Advisor: Dr....

Rondinelli Collaborates on Publication of Synthesis and Characterization Studies in Advanced Materials

Fri, 19 Apr 2013

Professor James Rondinelli has collaborated with researchers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, to published synthesis and characterization studies which describe how to stabilize new phases in ferroelectric materials by heteroepitaxial engineering in Advanced Materials. The article titled, “Interplay of Octahedral Tilts and Polar Order in BiFeO3 Films,” demonstrates that a distinct nonpolar BiFeO3 phase emerges simultaneously with changes in octahedral tilts at an oxide–oxide...

Joshua Young Places in Sigma Xi Showcase

Fri, 19 Apr 2013

Ph.D. student Joshua Young (advisor: James Rondinelli) won 3rd place in the Graduate Chemistry/Biochemistry Division of the Sigma Xi Student Research Showcase for his work "Atomic Scale Structural Design Strategies for Artificial Polar Oxides." Sigma Xi is a scientific research society founded in 1886 to honor excellence in scientific investigation and foster research cooperation among all fields of science and engineering. The Sigma Xi Student Research Showcase is a virtual research...

Alumnus Dr. William Frazier Selected 2013 NAVAIR Esteemed Fellow

Thu, 18 Apr 2013

Materials alumnus Dr. William E. Frazier (B.S 1981, M.S. 1984, Ph.D. 1987) was selected as a 2013 Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) Esteemed Fellow. Esteemed Fellow is the highest honor awarded through NAVAIR’s peer selection Fellows Program, which recognizes highly skilled individuals from NAVAIR’s engineering and scientific community deemed to be experts within their fields. Esteemed Fellows represent peer designation of the top .25 percent of the NAVAIR research and engineering...

Rondinelli Research Featured in Journal of the American Chemical Society

Thu, 18 Apr 2013

Professor Rondinelli and colleagues at Northwestern University and Xinjiang Technical Institute of Physics & Chemistry report a structure-based design strategy for second harmonic generating crystals with large responses in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. The article, titled "Designing a Deep Ultraviolet Nonlinear Optical Material with Large SHG Response," describes a new atomic structure acentricity descriptor and links the macroscopic electro-optical response...

Amanda Pentecost and Derrick Smith Receive NSF Graduate Research Fellowships

Wed, 03 Apr 2013

B.S./Ph.D. student Amanda Pentecost (advisor: Yury Gogotsi) and Ph.D. student Derrick Smith (advisor: Christopher Li) are both recipients of the 2013 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (NSF GRFP). The fellowship provides funding for three years of graduate stipend and tuition support, as well as opportunities to conduct research internationally.

Sarah Lightfoot Vidal Receives Fulbright Scholarship

Mon, 01 Apr 2013

B.S./M.S. student Sarah Lightfoot Vidal (advisor: Michele Marcolongo) has been selected as a Fulbright student grantee to work in Concepción, Chile at the Centro de Investigación de Polímeros Avanzados (CIPA) in collaboration with the Functional Polymers department at the Universidad de Concepción. Her project focuses on the development of a polymer blend of Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) for wound healing applications. Sarah has been volunteering as an undergraduate researcher...

Emily Buck Receives Goldwater Scholarship

Mon, 01 Apr 2013

B.S./M.S. student Emily Buck (advisor: Caroline Schauer) has been awarded a 2013 Barry Goldwater Scholarship. The Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program seeks to "provide a continuing source of highly qualified scientists, mathematicians, and engineers by awarding scholarships to college students who intend to pursue careers in these fields.” The Goldwater scholarship is given to 300 students nationally, and each University is allowed to nominate four...

Nanomaterials Group Collaboration Breaks Cold Temperature Storage Record

Fri, 22 Mar 2013

Distinguished University and Trustee Chair Professor Yury Gogotsi , members of the Nanomaterials Research Group, and collaborators at University of Texas at Austin and the Paul Sabetier University in Toulouse, France have engineered an electrolyte supercapacitor system that can store a large amount of energy at extremely low temperatures.

Ph.D. Alumnus Dr. Ranjan Dash Featured in Inaugural Issue of Drexel Magazine 40 Under 40

Tue, 12 Mar 2013

Ph.D. alumnus Dr. Ranjan Dash (MBA/Ph.D. ’06, advisor: Yury Gogotsi) has been featured in the inaugural issue of Drexel Magazine's 40 Under 40.

Philly Materials Day Featured on MRS Science Enthusiasts Website

Tue, 12 Mar 2013

Philly Materials Day has been featured on the Materials Research Society's (MRS) Science Enthusiasts website and Materials360 Online.

Kristy Jost Selected to attend Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting

Tue, 05 Mar 2013

Materials Ph.D. candidate and DoD NDSEG Fellow Kristy Jost (advisor: Yury Gogotsi, co-advisor: Genevieve Dion) has been selected to participate in the 63rd Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting, to be held from June 30 to July 5, 2013 in Lindau, Germany. Lindau Award recipients are nominated and selected by the sponsoring agencies and organizations (ORAU, ORISE, DOE, NIH, NSF, Mars, Inc.). Kristy, who will be sponsored by Mars, Inc., was selected as one of 550 young researchers from...

NSF Features Gogotsi's Sepsis Treatment Research on LiveScience

Thu, 28 Feb 2013

NSF has selected sepsis treatment advances by Distinguished University and Trustee Chair Professor Yury Gogotsi, former research professor Volker Presser, and former postdoc Sun-Hwa Yeon to be featured on the science news website livescience.com. Sepsis, also known as blood poisoning, occurs when an infection triggers the body to react with severe inflammation. In 40-60% of cases the condition is fatal. Gogotsi, Presser, and Yeon developed a filtration system of mesoporous carbons...

B.S./M.S. Student Yujun Xie Accepted to NCRC Conference

Fri, 04 Jan 2013

B.S./M.S. student Yujun (Terry) Xie (advisor: Steven May) has been accepted to the upcoming 2013 National Collegiate Research Conference taking place January 24-26 at Harvard University.

Drexel Materials Students Shine at 2012 MRS Fall Meeting

Thu, 13 Dec 2012

Drexel Materials Science and Engineering students racked up an impressive number of awards at the Fall 2012 meeting of the Materials Research Society (MRS), which was held November 25 - 30 in Boston, MA.

Ph.D. Student Kristy Jost Nominated for Lindau Award Competition

Thu, 13 Dec 2012

Ph.D. student Kristy Jost (advisor: Yury Gogotsi) has been nominated for the national Lindau Award competition under the highly competitive "MARS" pathway.

Dr. Garritt Tucker to Join Department in 2013

Mon, 03 Dec 2012

Dr. Garritt Tucker will join the department in September 2013 as Assistant Professor.

Former Post-Doctoral Researcher Bin Dong Appointed Professor at Soochow University

Thu, 29 Nov 2012

Dr. Bin Dong, former post-doctoral researcher with the Soft Materials Lab under the advisement of Professor Christopher Li, has been appointed professor in the Functional Nano & Soft Materials Laboratory (FUNSOM) at Soochow University.

Marcolongo Quoted in Article on Biomaterials

Wed, 21 Nov 2012

Professor and Senior Associate Vice Provost for Translational Research Michele Marcolongo was quoted in a November 16, 2012 Science article on the recent maturation of the field of biomaterials.

Ph.D. Student Steven Spurgeon Publishes Materials Day Article in the MRS Bulletin

Tue, 20 Nov 2012

An article by Ph.D. student Steven Spurgeon (advisor: Mitra Taheri) titled "Drexel hosts Philly Materials Day" appeared in the October 2012 issue of the MRS Bulletin.

MSE Alumna Dr. Svetlana Dimovski Quoted in Article on Open Innovation

Tue, 20 Nov 2012

MSE alumna Dr. Svetlana Dimovski (Ph. D. 2006; advisor: Yury Gogotsi) was interviewed for an article about "open innovation" (OI) that was featured in the October 2012 issue of Specialty Chemicals Magazine.

Knight Receives 2013 William Hunt Eisenman Award

Tue, 20 Nov 2012

On October 18, 2012, Professor Richard Knight received the 2013 William Hunt Eisenman Award from the Philadelphia Liberty Bell Chapter of ASM International. Established in 1957, the William Hunt Eisenman Award recognizes dedicated service to the society, foresight, dynamic management, leadership and promotion of the metals industry and metallurgical education.

Ph.D. Students Babak Anasori and Michael Naguib Abdelmalak Awarded High Praise at MS&T

Mon, 19 Nov 2012

At this year's Material Science & Technology (MS&T) Conference in Pittsburgh, PA, Ph.D. student Babak Anasori (advisor: Dr. Michel Barsoum) received the Diamond Award from the Basic Science Division of the American Ceramic Society for Graduate Excellence in Materials Science (GEMS) and, along with Ph.D. student Michael Naguib Abdelmalak (advisors: Barsoum & Gogotsi), earned a Roland B. Snow Best of Show Award for their image "Green MXene Turtle."

Li Elected Fellow of the American Physical Society

Mon, 12 Nov 2012

Professor Christopher Li has been elected Fellow of the American Physical Society.