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DEPARTMENT NEWS
Interim UConn President Radenka Maric in her lab with graduate research assistant Alanna Gado, left, and Ph.D. student Jiale Xing (UConn Photo).
Getting to Know Incoming UConn Interim President Radenka Maric: ‘For Me, The Students Are Everything’
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Maric brings experience in mentoring, private industry, and international scholarship to new role.
As UConn’s interim president, Radenka Maric brings a background of talents and interests that are as multifaceted as the University itself, but with the same cardinal commitment to place students at the center of its efforts.
Maric is UConn’s former vice president for research, innovation, and entrepreneurship, and has been a faculty member and researcher since 2010 at the University, where she also is a Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor. She She began as interim president to succeed Dr. Andrew Agwunobi, who left for private industry.
Maric’s accomplishments could fill many pages: She holds multiple patents, has been elected to prestigious professional organizations, published hundreds of scholarly works, received more than $40 million in research grants, and is fluent in four languages with a working knowledge of others.
But what has always been most important to her is the process of mentoring students and ensuring their well-being, helping them discover their academic passions and create professional and personal lives in which they, too, make their mark on the next generation as mentors.
“For me, the students are everything. That is very personal to me and very important,” Maric says. “I want them to know that whatever struggles they may have, the University is here to support them and to prepare them with the skills they will need in order to succeed.”
The UConn Board of Trustees appointed Maric as interim president during its Jan. 26 meeting, with a start date of Feb. 1. She worked in tandem with outgoing Interim President Andrew Agwunobi until his departure on Feb. 21, and will serve in the presidency throughout the planned search for UConn’s next permanent president.
“I’m truly honored and humbled,” she says of her selection as the interim leader. “As former President Susan Herbst says, the institution is much larger than any one of us and it is a privilege to be asked to serve.” Maric says the first order of business will be working with others throughout UConn to return to in-person learning
on its campuses as planned in early February, doing so in the most safe and healthy manner possible for its students, faculty, and staff amid ongoing COVID concerns.
“It is equally important to ensure the well being of our faculty and staff so they can ensure a successful semester,” she says. “We will continue to all work together to find creative ways in this uncertain time to continue our support of our students, our community, and our state.”
As someone who has mentored scores of students and whose three children graduated from UConn, Maric says the work is deeply personal and fulfilling.
Maric was born and raised in the former Yugoslavia and earned her bachelor’s degree at the University of Belgrade in Serbia before moving to Japan to earn her master’s and Ph.D. in materials science and energy at Kyoto University.
Her time in Japan was critical not only professionally, but also personally. She was studying at Kyoto University when Yugoslavia broke up in the early 1990s, seeing her scholarship disappear and eventually finding herself with so few resources that even affording food became a challenge.
But with the support of her mentor, she was able to overcome that challenge; in fact, she and that mentor stay in touch with regular emails. The experience was so impactful that she has committed to assisting students herself as well; she has personally established more than $100,000 in fellowship funds through the UConn Foundation to assist students.
“Giving to the university has been very important and very personal to me because I do know what it is like to be without funds. I was one of those students.
“And I now also know how much joy and pleasure one can get from giving (them) support financially as well as through your time and mentorship,” Maric says, noting that encouraging philanthropy will be an important focus of her time as interim president."
Having lived and worked in several countries, her international experience also will be a boon to UConn, which has a strong focus on preparing its students to live and compete in a global economy and to celebrate other cultures and traditions.
Like UConn itself, Maric has multi-faceted interests and skills.
She came to UConn as a faculty member in 2010 after an accomplished career in private industry and research. In addition to being vice president for research, innovation, and entrepreneurship, Maric is the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund Professor of Sustainable Energy in the Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering and Department of Materials Science and Engineering.
After graduation from Kyoto University, she stayed to work in Japan for about a decade before moving to Atlanta to work for a fuel cell research company in 2001. She transitioned in 2004 to become a group leader and program manager for Institute for Fuel Cell Innovation in Canada, then joined UConn in 2010 as a faculty member in the departments of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, and Materials Science and Engineering.
She is an elected member of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and has also earned many other professional honors and designations for her work.
Maric has admirers at all levels, from first-year UConn students fresh out of their high schools to the hallways of the state Capitol.
Gov. Ned Lamont has praise for Maric, noting he had appointed her to serve on the Connecticut Innovations Board of Directors because of “her incredible contributions to improve and strengthen UConn’s prowess in research.”
“UConn is incredibly fortunate to have the talented and unflappable Dr. Radenka Maric to steer UConn on an interim basis,” Lamont says. “Our Huskies will remain in good hands.”
While scientific pursuits and mentorship are at the root of her academic and research careers, Maric has personal pursuits as diverse as the University’s portfolio itself, particularly in humanities realms.
She is a talented painter and pianist, an amateur chef, and speaks four languages fluently (Croatian, English, German, and Japanese), with a working familiarity with Italian. She also designs and makes much of her wardrobe, first inspired by receiving a sewing machine as a birthday gift when she was a child.
“My philosophy about life is that we should explore who we are and discover ourselves,” she says, noting she was always strong in science but also liked music, and
The newest US News rankings reward UConn MSE with the biggest jump ahead for any materials program nationwide. UConn MSE leaped 11 spots to 35th, and is now tied at 24th among public institutions.
did not feel she had to give up one for the other. “Everybody has talents to discover as part of knowing who you are. I support every student in learning who you are – through your whole life, you learn,” she says.
“When I compete, I don’t compare against other people. I compete against myself,” she adds. “I ask myself, ‘Am I, Radenka, better today than I was one month ago or even yesterday? Did I learn something new?’ You have to strive for excellence and that is what I teach my students. That is what I will continue to do to serve UConn.”
Source, UConn Today, Stephanie Reitz
Interim President Radenka Maric appoints Pamir Alpay to serve as interim Vice President for Research, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship at UConn.
It is my pleasure to announce that I am appointing Dr. Pamir Alpay interim Vice President for Research, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship (VPRIE) at UConn. As you know, Pamir is currently the executive director of the UConn Innovation Partnership Building (IPB) and a Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor.
He is well known throughout UConn for his tireless work in supporting faculty research, fostering industry partnerships, and setting an example of innovation with his own work in smart/functional materials and multiscale materials modeling.
He will serve in the interim VPRIE role in my place as I serve as interim president, and we will work in tandem with others throughout UConn and UConn Health in the shared mission of securing our place as one of the nation’s top research universities.
In an institution that is fortunate to have so many talented faculty researchers, Pamir is particularly impressive and well suited to take on this important leadership role.
He came to UConn in 2001 from the University of Maryland, where he received his PhD in materials science and engineering in 1999 and worked as a postdoctoral researcher for the next two years, specializing in modeling of functional materials systems.
He joined the UConn School of Engineering as an assistant professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, moving to the rank of associate professor (with academic tenure) in 2007 and then to full professor in 2010. He also served as MSE’s department head from 2013-17.
Pamir distinguished himself quickly and consistently in those roles, earning a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Award in 2001 and the School of Engineering’s Outstanding Junior Faculty Award in 2004. He was named General Electric Endowed Professor in Advanced Manufacturing in 2017, and is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, ASM International, and the American Ceramic Society.
He has authored more than 180 peer-reviewed journal publications and conference proceedings, four invited book chapters, and an invited book co-authored on compositionally graded ferroelectric materials. S.Pamir Alpay, Interim Vice President for Research, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship
He was selected in 2017 as executive director of the IPB at the UConn Tech Park and has done outstanding work managing that state-of-the-art facility and coordinating associated industry partnerships. He has also continued to innovate in his field, including as the lead researcher on an $8 million project with the Air Force aimed at improving aerospace manufacturing processes.
Pamir’s skills in leadership, creativity, and collaboration make him an ideal fit for the interim position leading UConn’s burgeoning research enterprise. Please join me in congratulating him on this role, and my thanks to all of you for your continued pursuit of excellence in everything you do here at UConn.
Sincerely,
Dr. Radenka Maric Interim President
Dr. Cato T. Laurencin has been elected to the European Academy of Sciences. (Peter Morenus/UConn Photo)
The prestigious European Academy of Sciences has recognized UConn's Dr. Cato T. Laurencin for his visionary and pioneering work in the field of regenerative engineering
In recognition of his pioneering work in the field of regenerative engineering, UConn professor Dr. Cato T. Laurencin has been elected to the prestigious European Academy of Sciences (EURASC).
“It’s very gratifying that a number of different parts of the world consider the work we are doing to be breakthrough,” Laurencin says. “The world is embracing the concepts behind regenerative engineering and has come to realize the importance of this field.”
EURASC is an independent organization comprised of the world’s leading scholars and engineers at the forefront of research. Founded in 2003, its major objective is establishing efficient collaboration among scientists, researchers, educators, engineers, and leaders across the globe to develop policy for solving critical science and technology problems.
Membership is highly selective. New members are peer nominated and the vast majority are from European nations, though there is a small fraction of Americans. Honorary members include dozens of Nobel Prize and Fields Medal recipients, among other honors.
Laurencin is the Albert and Wilda Van Dusen Distinguished Endowed Professor of Orthopedic Surgery at the UConn School of Medicine. His seminal and singular accomplishments in tissue regeneration, biomaterials science, and nanotechnology, and regenerative engineering, a field he founded, have made him the foremost engineer-physician-scientist in the world.
Laurencin also serves as CEO of the Connecticut Convergence Institute for Translation in Regenerative Engineering at UConn Health and professor of chemical engineering, materials science and engineering, and biomedical engineering at UConn.
His breakthrough achievements have resulted in transformative advances in improving human life. Laurencin’s fundamental contributions to materials science and engineering include the introduction of nanotechnology into the biomaterials field for regeneration.
Laurencin will formally be inducted into the European Academy of Sciences during the Academy’s reception in Belgium in October. Last year’s reception was virtual because of the pandemic.
“I am looking forward to meeting my Academy colleagues from throughout the world when we gather in Brussels,” Laurencin said.
EURASC marks Laurencin’s sixteenth membership in a national or international scientific academy, including four in Europe, four in Asia, three in Africa, and five in the United States. This year, in addition to the EURASC, he has been elected into the Academia Europaea, the Senegalese Academy of Science and Technology, the Benin Academy of Science and Arts, and the Indian Academy of Sciences.
Laurencin is the first surgeon in history elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Medicine, and the National Academy of Inventors.
In January, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People held a ceremony with Laurencin and UConn officials celebrating the awarding of the Spingarn Medal, the organization’s highest honor. Laurencin joined the company of such American heroes as Martin Luther King Jr., Maya Angelou, George Washington Carver, Jackie Robinson, Duke Ellington, Charles Drew, and others over the award’s 106-year history.
UConn Today, Matt Engelhardt
MSE Adjunct Professor Daniel Goberman ‘never lets the class get bored’
Adjunct Professor, Raytheon Technical Fellow, and External Advisory Board member Daniel Goberman discusses his unique role within MSE.
Materials Science and Engineering Adjunct Professor Daniel Goberman says the root of his teaching philosophy is to “never let the class get bored.” This has been a guiding mission to Goberman since he first began his career as a professor. According to him, when he entered the MSE department over 13 years ago as an adjunct faculty member, he was determined to show his students how interesting and exciting materials science and engineering could be. “I love teaching. I really enjoy the challenge of making technical topics interesting and even entertaining,” Goberman says. Goberman recalls being a student and dreading the classes where the professor turned their back from the students, spoke to the blackboard, and wrote derivations and problems from the book. Throughout his years standing in front of the blackboard, he has made it a goal not to do this.
“I believe that no matter how dull the basic material might be, it can be applied to something interesting. I try to find that interesting thing and use it to teach. If I can’t find an interesting example, then it is up to me to break-up the monotony with a joke, funny observation or simply a five-minute break… Students don’t learn much when they are sleeping,” he says. Though he might have snored through a few lectures as a student, Goberman, who has been associated with the department in some way for over 25 years and the University for over 30, has certainly never tired of UConn MSE. Not to mention, his two brothers and sister also studied at UConn. So when it came time to complete his PhD in 2002, fate would have it that he didn’t venture far from his home in Storrs.
Just when he was finishing his PhD research, the UConn surface modification laboratory manager at the time announced he was going to retire.
“Here I was with a bunch of knowledge about how to run all the machines, analyze the data, and apply the technology to advanced research… The perfect fit,” Goberman says. MSE Adjunct Professor and Raytheon Technical Fellow Daniel Goberman.
He spent over five years in this position before, in 2008, he joined the United Technologies Research Center as a senior engineer, moving up the ranks to Discipline Leader in Materials Characterization and Associate Director by 2017. In 2020, the company merged with Raytheon forming a new parent company Raytheon Technologies. In January of 2022, Goberman was promoted to his current role of Technical Fellow in Materials Characterization.
All the while, Goberman has taught as an adjunct faculty member at UConn MSE. He is also a member of the MSE External Advisory Board.
“Having over 13 years of experience in industry as well as over 25 years associated with the department, I have a unique perspective when it comes to understanding what industry might want from graduates as well as what the department is able to offer,” he says.
As a technical fellow, he works hands on in the laboratory supporting materials characterization focused on surface analysis. He also acts as a materials analysis focal point for any related questions from engineers within Raytheon.
Goberman’s work with Raytheon spans both failure analysis and advanced research. According to him, recent efforts have included the analysis of discoloration of bolts on a commercial airliner and advanced analysis to try to determine the root cause of electronics failures in fighter jets. As for research at Raytheon, Goberman says he has been involved with the analysis and development of high temperature ceramic materials for future use in aerospace and defense applications at Raytheon Technologies.
Much of his current focus is related to the goal of improving aircraft technology. However, Goberman relishes his work the further up the atmosphere it is. In his words, he’s a “space junky.” A few years ago, when NASA came
knocking with an issue that needed solving, he was more than happy to lend a materials science hand. The problem concerned a space suit which was holding up a critical spacewalk needed to fix the International Space Station… No pressure.
“Myself and my colleagues worked several really long days but had answers that allowed NASA to approve the suit for use in just a few days from when this issue was identified,” he says.
Aside from being able to bring this story back to his students, there are many ways that his two jobs have become a collaborative pair as he pulls experience and networks from one and brings it to the other.
“Being an adjunct professor gives me the opportunity to maintain my connections to the university. I can keep in touch with the faculty and stay abreast of changes in personnel and technologies in addition to getting to meet the students. Both of those aspects help me in my professional life outside the university by allowing me to facilitate the interactions between Raytheon and UConn,” he says.
According to Goberman, the work that he does at Raytheon defines how he teaches.
“It gives me a treasure trove of examples — not directly from Raytheon, but similar enough that the public domain example is just as good,” he says.
It’s this question of “real life” application that Goberman believes distinguishes his students’ learning.
“True success will come when you understand how items you learned are applied to real world situations. Asking ‘What is this good for?’ for each topic makes the knowledge useful by connecting it to applications and you are much more likely to remember it in the future when you need it,” he says.
This semester, he teaches a graduate class, Surface Science for Materials. According to Goberman, the class focuses on the surface of materials with a detailed exploration of the interactions that occur between those surfaces and the analysis tools used to understand them.
No matter the class, Goberman finds a way to make the material interesting. Though he enjoys being creative with his lessons, this is not his favorite part of being a professor. The best part of teaching, according to Goberman, is when a student says, “I don’t understand.”
“First, this lets me know that they care enough to ask for help! But secondly it is a challenge for me to find a new way to explain the topic that I thought I had just explained. The challenge is so satisfying, and it allows me, in that instant, to see the world around me in a different way,” he says. This year two storied MSE professors anounced their retirements.
THEO KATTAMIS
joined UConn as an Assistant Professor in 1969. HAL BRODY
joined UConn as the Engineering Dean in 1991.
Both Hal and Theo are remaining active in teaching, mentoring, and research as emeritus faculty.
XUEJU "SOPHIE"
WANG received the NIH trailblazer award, $643,591 in total, for her proposal entitled “Multifunctional 3D Bioelectronic and Microfluidic Hybrid Systems for Online Monitoring, Regulation, and Vascularization of Organoids” as an early stage investigator.
FIONA LEEK, Director
Undergraduate Laboratories, was selected as this year’s Undergraduate Faculty Career Mentor of the Year. The student nominated award was established to recognize that students search for career advice from a variety of people: faculty, staff, alumni, and employee partners.
Theo Kattamis professes for Over 50 Years
Theo Kattamis’ dedicated career in materials science and engineering spans more than 50 years
Theo Kattamis has played a vital role in the development of the MSE Department at UConn. Over more than 50 years, he has witnessed the creation of an undergraduate program, expansion of the department, and new research findings. He remained loyal to UConn because he “liked the University’s environment which was very friendly and helpful, and the job which offered the possibility of growth.”
When Professor Kattamis first came to UConn in 1969, he joined the Metallurgy Department which offered only a graduate program. “Since the Department was located from the early seventies in the Institute of Materials Science building, its name evolved to the Department of Metallurgy and Materials,” says Kattamis. “Many years later we added an undergraduate program, and shortly thereafter, following a world-wide trend, we became the Department of Materials Science and Engineering.”
Over the years, Kattamis taught three graduate courses: Solidification of Metals, Welding Engineering, and Powder Metallurgy Processing. He also taught two non-engineering electives for undergraduates: History of Materials and Technology and History of Engineering Until the Dawn of the 20th Century. More recently, he taught important core courses for the department related to processing, and has taught literally thousands of UConn engineers through the Introduction to MSE course.
Kattamis first obtained his bachelors in mining engineering from the Université de Liège, Belgium. During his fifth year he was appointed as an assistant lecturer and decided to obtain a second degree in geological engineering. But, “after practicing as a geological engineer in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, I changed my mind as I was walking through the jungle full of snakes. Instead, I finished my studies with an extra year focused
on extractive metallurgical engineering” he says. After that he attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he obtained his MS in metallurgy with a research focus on the dendritic structure in low alloy steels and the way the alloying elements are distributed within the solid (“micro-segregation”). 18 months later he received his ScD focused on the microstructure and mechanical properties of solids formed from highly undercooled (up to 300oC) melts.
In the field, Kattamis’ expertise is solidification of metals and ceramics, materials joining, and materials processing in the liquid and vapor state. Out of his 128 published research papers, his two favorites are "Influence of Coarsening on Dendrite Arm Spacing of Aluminum-Copper Alloys" and "Influence of Coarsening on Dendrite Arm Spacing and Grain Size of Magnesium-Zinc Alloy" because of their focus on coarsening. “For a long time, my peers did not believe in coarsening. But, interface instability of the growing crystal leads to the formation of arms and an increase in the specific solidliquid interface area and there comes coarsening which pushes back the dendrite arms trying to reduce that interface area,” says Kattamis. “I had to do more work to convince them that I was right.”
At MIT Kattamis fell in love with an academic career. “I stayed at MIT as a research associate for three years and felt very much attracted by an academic career,” he states. “My desire to join an academic institution and contribute to the education of future generations encouraged me to start exploring available academic openings.”
Kattamis’ professor and mentor at MIT, Merton C. Flemmings, is the reason why Kattamis teaches at UConn. “Professor A. J. McEvily, at that time Head of the UConn Metallurgy Department, established at UConn in the Fall 1968, called Professor Flemings looking to hire a young professor specializing in the area of solidification,” Kattamis says. “I was interviewed, offered, and accepted the job as an assistant professor, starting in January 1969.”
When he first came to UConn, Kattamis was in shock. “There was only one restaurant/ coffee shop (Kathy John’s), a drugstore, a pizzeria, and a cinema!” he exclaims. Since then, Kattamis claims that the University has physically and academically grown tremendously. But the University is still growing! “The MSE Department is rapidly growing, and this Fall will have a new building (Science 1),” says Kattamis. “[The major] has several concentrations, such as classical Metallurgy, Biomaterials, Nanomaterials, Energy Materials and Electronic Materials. MSE graduates find well-paying jobs and will join a group of very successful alumni”. Theo Kattamis, Emeritus Professor
He was promoted to associate professor in 1971, awarded tenure in 1973, and became a full professor in 1975. As current MSE department head Bryan Huey notes, “UConn students are fortunate that Theo continues to share his wisdom and excitement for the field now more than 5 decades into his career. ”
“Kattamis has been an essential asset to the creation and development of UConn’s MSE Department. The program would not be what it is today without his years of expertise. His knowledge, teaching, humor and insight have been indispensable.
MSE Researcher Earns DOE Career Award
Yuanyuan Zhu's research into tungsten oxidation could lead to key breakthroughs in nuclear fusion technology.
Professor Yuanyuan Zhu knows that tungsten is going to play a critical role as scientists work toward the ambitious goal of building nuclear fusion reactors and harnessing new energy sources.
“Tungsten is a gift from nature,” says Zhu, an assistant professor and director of the honors program in materials science and engineering. “It’s special because it has the highest melting point of any metal and stays strong at very high temperatures, making it ideal to use as the plasma-facing divertor armour in fusion.” As a result, scientists and engineers view tungsten as a top candidate for building fusion reactors. In terms of factors such as strength, good thermal conductivity, and radiation tolerance, there are few metals that can match it. However, there are presumed dangers in the event of an air-ingress leak. Zhu says that when tungsten oxidizes, it becomes unstable and volatile. Since tungsten is exposed to nuclear radiation during normal operation, the resulting oxide dust is radioactive, and release of it is extremely dangerous. The problem is one of many scientists must solve to develop fusion as a clean and safe energy source for constant baseload electrical power. Zhu is dedicated to better understanding thermal oxidation of tungsten under fusion extremes, and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is taking significant interest in her research. This summer, the DOE’s Office of Science announced Zhu’s selection for an Early Career Award for her work in the field of fusion energy sciences. She is the third UConn researcher to earn a DOE Career Award since 2015. This award differs from the National Science Foundation’s Early Career Program awards. Zhu is one of 56 university scientists across the country selected for an award. The grants are planned for five years, with university researchers receiving $150,000 per year to fund their projects. Eligibility is limited to untenured or tenure-track assistant or associate professors who completed their Ph.D. programs within the past 10 years. “Supporting talented researchers early in their career is key to fostering scientific creativity and ingenuity within the national research community,” said DOE Office of Science Director Asmeret Asefaw Berhe. “Dedicating resources to these focused projects led by well-deserved investigators helps maintain and grow America’s scientific skill set for generations to come.” Zhu says the grant will likely allow her to hire two graduate assistants as well as paying equipment user fees for experimentation at the Institute of Material Science at UConn. She is humbled to earn the grant and begin a new chapter in her research.
The potential of the work is “transformative,” says Zhu. Fusion energy is key in replacing fossil fuels for electrical power needs, but harnessing such energy is demanding and requires materials like tungsten that can cope with extreme environments and conditions.
Zhu’s project addresses a well-known safety hazard associated with high-temperature oxidation of tungsten plasmafacing materials in case of air ingress accidents. Currently, scientists do not completely understand the fundamental nanoscale processes of tungsten oxidation under pristine or irradiated conditions. Her research intends to understand how tungsten oxide evolves, how fast it grows during the oxidation, and, based on the new mechanisms, to develop strategies for making reactors safer and more resistant. The process for experimentation is also novel. Zhu’s project leverages in-situ environmental microscopy methods along with computer vision models to allow for new results under the oxidation conditions that cannot be obtained by conventional methods. Using a small gas cell the size of a thumbnail, the in-situ experiment mimics the oxidation process under off-normal events.
The team will be able to see the evolution of tungsten oxide layers as they happen, including the possible effects of radiation-induced defects on oxidation.
“It’s exciting to apply modern techniques to explore such a fundamental, classical question on tungsten oxidation,” Zhu says.
Assistant Professor Yuanyuan Zhu Conceptual image representing the process of nuclear fusion, specifically the creation of helium from hydrogen.
UConn Today, Matt Engelhardt
Dr. Cato T. Laurencin won the
106th annual Spingarn Medal, the highest honor of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
PUXIAN GAO now holds 34 patents, transferring the technologies developed in his Nanomaterials Science Laboratory to commercial success through 3D Array Technology LLC, which he cofounded.
RAINER HEBERT, Director of the UConn Additive Manufacturing center, was elevated to being a fellow for both ASM International as well as the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering.
Xueju “Sophie” Wang Receives CAREER Award
MSE Assistant Professor Xueju “Sophie” Wang has been awarded the NSF Faculty Early Development Program CAREER Award for her proposal entitled “Mechanics of Active Polymers and Morphing Structures: Determine the Role of Molecular Interactions and Stiffness Heterogeneity in Reversible Shape Morphing.” It is one of NSF’s most prestigious awards.
Wang’s NSF CAREER award will support her research on fundamental studies of the mechanics of innovative active polymers and morphing structures. Soft active polymers that can change their shapes and therefore functionalities upon exposure to external stimuli are promising for many applications, including soft robotics, artificial muscles, and tissue repair. This research project aims to establish the missing correlations across the molecular, material, and structural levels of novel active polymers for their rational design, manufacturing, and applications, by using liquid crystal elastomers as a model material system. “I am very grateful and honored to receive this prestigious award, and I look forward to working with my students to address challenges in innovative active polymers and to apply them in emerging fields like soft robotics,” Wang said.
Through this award, Wang will expose students and the general public to research frontiers in morphing materials and structures through starting an overarching program, “Morphing Beyond Imagination,” where simple and entertaining demonstrations of morphing flowers, spiders, and octopuses will be provided to elementary school students. Additionally, Wang’s program will be used to help develop curricula for high school students to promote their pursuit of STEM related studies.
The award and funding are administered through the NSF Mechanics Assistant Professor Xueju “Sophie” Wang
of Materials and Structures (MOMs) program in the Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation (CMMI) in support of early-career faculties who have led academic advancements in research or education in mechanics as related to the behavior of deformable solid materials and structures.
UConn’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering congratulates Wang on her impressive achievement.
Wang joined MSE in 2020. Her research group focuses on mechanics, advanced materials, and functional structures for applications from flexible electronics to soft robotics. In 2016 she received her Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. After completing her post-doctoral research at Northwestern University, she served as an assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University of Missouri, Columbia.
In addition to the NSF CAREER award, her research has been recognized through numerous awards including the ASME Orr Early Career Award, the ASME Haythornthwaite Foundation Research Initiation Award, and the Gary L. Cloud Scholarship Award from the Society of Experimental Mechanics.
LESLEY FRAME, Assistant Professor and Director of the Center for Materials Processing Data (CMPD) was recently recognized as UTC Professor of Engineering Innovation, a three-year award of the School of Engineering. Frame is currently serving as the ASM Heat Treating Society’s president, the first woman to hold this position.
BRYAN HUEY, Chair, 2022-2023, University
Materials Council (association of MSE department heads, representing and supporting nearly 120 materials programs from North America and beyond).
Assistant Professor JASNA JANKOVIC presented in Session 4 of H2 View’s Virtual Hydrogen Summit Europe 2022 event. She was one of three panelists for Women in Green Hydrogen (WiGH) whose goal is to amplify the voices of women working in green 13 | UConn - Department of Materials Science and Engineering, 2022hydrogen.
Designing a Lighter Fuel Cell with Higher Current Density
A team of UConn engineering researchers is working with Technology Commercialization Services to bring a tubular design of a fuel cell to market.
Fuel cell technology is continuously evolving as renewable energy and alternate energy sources become an increasingly important means of reducing global dependence on fossil fuels. Planar fuel cells, a prevalent design, can be bulky, have compression issues, and uneven current distribution. Other drawbacks include problems with reactant gas transport, excess water removal, and fabrication challenges associated with their design.
A team of UConn researchers led by Jasna Jankovic, an assistant professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering in the School of Engineering, has devised a novel design for a tubular polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell that addresses those shortcomings and improves on existing tubular PEM fuel cell designs, most of which take a planar PEM fuel cell and curl it into a cylinder.
Jankovic and two grad students, Sara Pedram and Sean Small, took a more holistic approach that rethinks tubular fuel cell design from the ground up. Their disruptive, patent-pending concept could potentially have nearly twice the energy density of other tubular PEM fuel cells, be 50 percent lighter, have a replaceable inner electrode and electrolyte (if liquid), a leak-proof configuration, and require fewer precious metals.
"That’s a big deal," says Michael Invernale, a senior licensing manager at UConn’s Technology Commercialization Services (TCS) working with Jankovic to bring the concept to market. "Much of the effort to improve fuel cell design," he says, "has focused on the end user instead of the greater good."
“A fuel cell with refillable components is a kind of solution that does that,” says Invernale. “An airline relying on this technology would have more incentive to rebuild a component. Right now, it might be cheaper to replace the whole unit. That’s really where this design shines. The features of the design are green and sustainable and renewable.”
Fuel cells are essentially refuelable electrochemical power generation devices that combine hydrogen and oxygen to generate electricity, heat, and water. Each type is classified primarily by the kind of electrolyte it uses. Planar fuel cells are constructed using sandwich-
Left to Right: Graduate students and entrepreneurial leads Sara Pedram and Sean Small, industrial mentor Leonard Bonville and principal investigator and technical lead Jasna Jankovic.
like stacks of large, rectangular flow field plates made of graphite or metal, which account for about 80 percent of their weight and 40 percent of their cost. UConn’s design uses a single tube-shaped flow field that reduces its weight by half.
The concept is still in discovery and has I-Corps and Partnership for Innovation (PFI) funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The program was created to spur the translation of fundamental research to the marketplace, encourage collaboration between academia and industry, and train NSF-funded faculty, students, and other researchers in innovation and entrepreneurship skills.
Participating research teams have the opportunity to interview potential customers to learn more about their needs. Jankovic and her team conducted some 60 interviews during a UConn Accelerator program in early 2022 that helped them size up the market and answer important questions about whether or not to start a longer process, make the product themselves, or license the technology to another company.
“It was very useful to get feedback and guidance from people in industry,” Jankovic says.
Jankovic led the team as PI, with Pedram and Small, acting as Entrepreneurial Lead and Co-Lead respectively. Leonard Bonville, the team’s industrial mentor, will support the team with his decades of industrial experience. The team will conduct another set of 100 interviews with industry to discover the market for their product and get guidance on its final design. NSF-Partnership for Innovation (PFI) funding will then be used to develop a prototype and pursue commercialization.
Fuel cells have a wide range of applications, from powering homes and businesses, to keeping critical facilities like hospitals, grocery stores, and data centers up and running, and moving a variety of vehicles, including cars, buses, trucks, forklifts, trains, and more. Jankovic’s team is working toward obtaining a full patent on their design and thoroughly testing the concept. In the short term, they are focused on commercializing the technology and attracting potential partners.
Jankovic envisions creating a fuel cell roughly the size of a AA battery however, as a scalable and modular technology, it could be scaled-up to any practical size. "The cylindrical shape would allow for more fuel cells to occupy the same amount of space as those in use now and be cheaper to manufacture," Invernale said. Jankovic views her fuel cell design as a replacement for LithiumIon batteries.
Jankovic said her seven years in industry before coming to UConn convinced her there was a need in the market for a new and better fuel cell design.
“From that experience, I knew that planar fuel cells had a few issues,” she says. “I kept asking around, and I said, ‘let’s do it and find out yes or no.”
UConn Today, Loretta Waldman
C. BARRY CARTER,
Emeritus Professor and CINT Distinguished Affiliate Scientist (Sandia National Lab, NM) has been serving as editorin-chief for the Journal of Materials Science (Springer Nature) since 2004.
MARK AINDOW,
Executive Director for Innovation, External Engagement, and Industry Relations is currently serving as chair of the Phase Transformations Committee. The committee is part of the Materials Processing & Manufacturing Division of the Minerals, Metals & Materials Society (TMS).
