The Materials group is engaged in highly interdisciplinary materials research to drive new innovations to solve critical societal problems in areas such as energy and healthcare, among others.

Research Topics

  • Materials for Healthcare Applications: Exciting developments over the last decade of materials-based technologies for diagnostics and therapeutic applications include lab-on-a-chip devices, understanding the mechanical behavior of biomaterials, regeneration of bone and cartilage, and novel scintillating materials for next generation of detectors for medical imaging.
  • Materials for Energy and Environment: This research focuses on materials related to clean energy conversion, including solid oxide fuel cells, membrane based environmentally friendly processing of energy-intensive metals, hydrogen generation and storage, carbon dioxide separation for sequestration, advanced coatings for clean energy generation, and waste to energy conversion technologies.
  • Materials Theory and Modeling: Ongoing research is focused on predictive simulation of electronic, optical, magnetic, and mechanical properties of materials, and multi-scale modeling of biological composites.
  • Materials at the Micro/Nano Scale: Mechanical behavior of MEMS/NEMS devices, physics of ultra-thin metal films, and development of polymeric micro/nano-biosystems for in-situ study of cellular and sub-cellular mechanics.

Faculty