Materials Science and Engineering

Faculty Directory

Walter Milligan

Walter W. Milligan

  • Chair, Materials Science and Engineering
  • Franklin M. St. John Professor in Materials Science and Engineering

Research and Teaching Interests

  • Mechanical Behavior of Materials

Jaroslaw Drelich

Jaroslaw W. Drelich

  • Distinguished Professor, Materials Science and Engineering

Links of Interest

Research Interests

  • Adhesion of fine particles
  • Characterization of materials’ surfaces
  • Biodegradable implant materials
  • Wetting of solids and liquids
  • Colloidal properties of particles
  • Recycling of materials
  • Minerals and oil sands processing
Mary Fraley

Mary Fraley

  • Associate Teaching Professor, Materials Science and Engineering
Stephen Hackney

Stephen A. Hackney

  • Professor, Materials Science and Engineering

Teaching Interests

  • Electron microscopy
  • Materials characterization
  • Thermodynamics and kinetics
  • Electronic materials
  • Senior design

Research Interests

  • Lithium ion batteries, ceramic battery materials
  • Surface and interface dynamics
  • Thin films and nanostructures
  • Thermodynamics
  • Magnetic materials
  • Diffusional instabilities and applications of electron microscopy
Erik Herbert
"You always have a choice and it always makes a difference."
—Rick Dunn

Erik G. Herbert

  • Associate Professor, Materials Science and Engineering

Links of Interest

Teaching Interests

  • Introduction to Materials Science and Engineering
  • Mechanical Behavior of Materials
  • Nanoindentation and Contact Mechanics

Research Interests

  • State-of-the-art ambient, non-ambient, in-operando and in-situ mechanical behavior of materials at nanometer and micrometer length scales
  • Development and implementation of novel small-scale mechanical testing methodologies for metals, ceramics, polymers, composites, semiconductors, biomaterials and structured devices
  • Mechanical characterization of unique materials & systems such as but not limited to bulk materials, individual phases, thin films, coatings, modified surfaces, micro-pillars, fibers, membranes, hydrogels, MEMS, microfluidic and micromachined devices
  • Small-scale mechanical testing in inert atmospheres and over the temperature range from -20 to 100 degrees C (to 1100 degrees C at the Joint Institute for Advanced Materials)
  • Measuring the components of the complex modulus of small volumes of viscoelastic solids
  • Predicting uniaxial stress-strain curves from nanoindentation data
  • High-speed property mapping of interfaces, multi-phase alloys and heat affected zones
  • Multi-axis contact experiments that enable manipulation of the state of stress
  • Measuring residual stress in free-standing thin films
Yun Hang Hu

Yun Hang Hu

  • Charles and Carroll McArthur Professorship in Materials Science and Engineering

Links of Interest

Research Interests

  • Graphene for solar energy
  • Dye-sensitized solar cells
  • Photocatalysis
  • Synthesis of novel solid materials and liquid fuels from CO2
  • Hydrogen storage materials
  • Synthesis, structures and properties of nano-structured materials
  • Heterogeneous catalysis for energy and fuels
  • Predictions of material properties
Yongmei Jin

Yongmei M. Jin

  • Professor, Materials Science and Engineering

Research Interests

  • Microstructure Evolution in Crystalline Solids
  • Solid State Phase Transformations
  • Magnetic Domains
  • Single Crystal Diffraction and Diffuse Scattering
  • Computational Materials Science
Stephen Kampe

Stephen L. Kampe

  • Professor, Materials Science and Engineering
  • Director, Institute for Materials Processing (IMP)

Research Interests

  • Microstructural mapping in laser additive manufactured titanium
  • Modeling and characterization of Nextel® reinforced aluminum metal matrix composites
  • Reactive synthesis processes
  • Thermomechanical processing
  • Co-deformation of multiphase alloys
  • Mechanisms of strengthening
Miguel Levy

Miguel Levy

  • Professor, Physics and Materials Science and Engineering

Links of Interest

Research Interests

  • Photonics
  • Nonreciprocal Phenomena
Peter Moran

Peter D. Moran

  • Professor, Materials Science and Engineering
  • Professor, Physics

Teaching Interests

  • Electronic and Photonic Materials
  • Diffraction (Physics and Applications)
  • Experimental Design

Research Interests

  • Heteroepitaxial growth on compliant substrates
  • Fabrication, characterization, and properties of nanoscale layered structures
  • Integration of dissimilar materials through wafer bonding
  • The relationship between structural, optical, and electronic properties of heterostructures
  • Quantitative x-ray diffraction analysis
  • Materials Science curriculum development at all educational levels
  • The relationship between information and atoms
Paul Sanders
"The more you do, the more you do."
—George Sanders (my Dad)

Paul G Sanders

  • Patrick Horvath Endowed Professor of Materials Science and Engineering
  • Foundry Educational Foundation (FEF) Key Professor
  • Association for Iron & Steel Technology (AIST) Foundation Steel Professor

Teaching Interests

  • Lead MSE undergraduate senior design program: integrate mechanistic models, ICME tools, experiments, and statistics
  • Apply design knowledge via real-world, industry-sponsored projects

Institute of Materials Processing

Metal processing capabilities

Research Interests

  • Alloy design in Al, Cu, Fe, Ni, and MPEAs 
  • Apply ICME and statistical tools with machine learning and DOEs in alloy optimization
  • Verify via production through casting, wrought processing (extrusion, rolling, drawing, swaging), and/or (wire) additive manufacturing
  • Applications in sustainability (recycling), transportation (lightweighting), and efficiency (thermal stability)
Douglas Swenson

Douglas J. Swenson

  • Associate Professor, Materials Science and Engineering
  • Graduate Program Director, Materials Science and Engineering

Teaching Interests

  • Materials characterization
  • Thermodynamics
  • Kinetics
  • Phase transformations
  • Electronic materials
  • Senior design

Research Interests

  • Thermodynamics and phase diagram modeling
  • Diffusion and solid-state reaction kinetics, and the application of these principles to the solution of materials problems