We invest in our interdisciplinary research and believe in a strong collaborative culture across disciplines. Our researchers have the support of both academic departments and university-wide institutes. By encouraging crosscutting research to open up traditional silos of knowledge to the stimulus of other viewpoints and new ideas. This mingling of disciplines, often called “convergence,” brings together the physical and life sciences with engineering and computation to solve the most complex problems facing society today and in the future.
Visit our research group websites listed below to see what great things are happening within MatSE:
Penn State Glass Research: https://sites.psu.edu/glass
Penn State Glass Research group encompasses all aspects of glass science and technology, including theory, modeling and simulation, physics and chemistry, bulk and surface characterization, compositional design and optimization, and more.
Alem Research Group - https://sites.psu.edu/alem
With the utilization of advanced electron microscopy imaging and spectroscopy techniques, our research is focused to understand and address the existing challenges in novel nanostructures and devices. We utilize Scanning/Transmission Electron Microscopy (S/TEM) imaging and spectroscopy and develop advanced data analysis and machine learning algorithms to further uncover a variety of phenomena in materials including low dose imaging of beam sensitive materials, atomic scale metrology of defects and quantification of sub-Angstrom relaxation effects in nanostructures as well as their nanoscale plasmonic and electronic properties.
Beese Research Group: https://sites.psu.edu/beeseresearchgroup/
The Beese group researches the mechanical behavior of materials, and in particular, how the mechanical behavior of a material is dictated by its microstructure.
Virtual guided lab tour with Dr. Beese
Chen Research Group: https://www.mri.psu.edu/chen-research-group
Main research interest is in the fundamental understanding of the thermodynamics and kinetics of phase transformations and mesoscale microstructure evolution in bulk solid and thin films using computer simulations.
DebRoy Research Group: https://modeling.matse.psu.edu
Research focusis computational materials processing, particularly the application of numerical transport phenomena and optimization in welding and additive manufacturing. The group's models compute the most important factors that affect metallurgical product quality such as temperature and velocity fields, cooling rates, and solidification parameters.
Gopalan Research Group: https://sites.psu.edu/gopalan/members/
The Gopalan group probes the symmetry, atomic scale structure, and a range of optical and electronic properties of materials through Ultrafast Lasers and Xrays. The group has two main areas of materials focus: Complex Oxides and Semiconductors. Underlying both of these, is our fundamental explorations in discovering new Symmetries in nature. The group is primarily a Materials Characterization Group (optical, electronic, structural, thermal properties), who work closely with theory and synthesis groups in team projects, where students have an opportunity to learn multiple skills.
J.-P. Maria Group: https://sites.psu.edu/mariagroupalpha/
Maria labs are located in the historic and newly renovated Steidle Building. Our labs feature state of the art PVD systems, characterization tools, and powder processing capabilities that enable our team to conduct discovery science and engineering projects that advance technology spaces including IR plasmonics, high entropy materials, nanoenergetics, extreme-low temperature synthesis, exciting new ferroelectric thin films, and extreme refractory coatings. Click here to take the 3D tour featured on our lab page.
Hasegwawa Research Group: https://sites.psu.edu/hasegawa
The Hasegwawa Research Group is developing novel polymeric nanomaterials for drug delivery that can minimize side effects and improve therapeutic efficacy by applying the principles of polymer chemistry, nanotechnology, and biomaterials science. We design and synthesize polymeric nanomaterials using various polymerization techniques, such as reversible addition-fragmentation transfer (RAFT) polymerization and aqueous dispersion polymerization, as well, as evaluate their biological activities in cell culture and biological systems.
Hickey Research Group: https://sites.psu.edu/hickeyresearchgroup/
The Hickey group focuses on hybrid inorganic/polymeric materials synthesis, self-assembly, and property characterization. The group is developing materials fabrication guidelines for controlling well-organized nanostructures with potential applications related to energy, optical, structural, and catalytic technologies.
Kim Group: https://sites.psu.edu/kimgroup
Electrochemistry for sustainable technology: The Kim group's research is motivated by the need for sustainable technology development for our modern society. The primary focus of their research lies in understanding and developing electrochemical processes to meet these needs.
Law Group: https://sites.psu.edu/lawgroup/
The Law research group focuses on understanding and synthesizing quantum materials and heterostructures to realize devices with novel, designer photonic properties. Most of their research focuses on working with long wavelength light from the mid-infrared through the terahertz. Their materials can squeeze light into tiny volumes, make light bend backward, and slow light down. These devices have applications in thermal and biological imaging, infrared and terahertz detectors, chemical sensing, environmental monitoring, security and defense, and quantum computing.
Phases Research Lab: https://www.phases.psu.edu/
Recent studies include concentrate on aluminum alloys, magnesium alloys, Ni-base superalloys, ion transport membranes, and ferroelectrics. The primary emphasis is on fundamentals of phase stability, defect chemistry, and their applications in understanding and predicting relationships among materials chemistry, processing, and properties.
Polymer Nanostructures Lab: https://zeus.plmsc.psu.edu/
Our research focuses on novel nanometer-structured polymers and nanocomposites, as they lead to the next generation of materials, enable new applications, and unravel the relevant science in the field.
Mohney Group: Introduction to the Mohney Research Group - YouTube
This research group investigates electronic and photonic materials, particularly metals and semiconductors for use in electronic and optoelectronic devices. Their work also involves deposition of thin films and synthesis of nanostructures, especially using atomic layer deposition.
Priya research Group: https://sites.psu.edu/priya/
The Priya group's research is focused on developing bio-inspired materials, understanding the complex nature of properties in these materials, and once this understanding has been achieved, utilizing them to invent unique applications. Thus, the group is very interdisciplinary, consisting of materials scientists, physicists, mechanical engineers, robotics, and electrical engineers. This allows the group to conduct integrated research addressing several aspects at the material, component, and system level.
Redwing Research Group: https://sites.psu.edu/redwing
The Redwing group's research is focused on semiconductor thin film and nanostructure fabrication with a special emphasis on the development of chemical vapor deposition-based techniques. This work is aimed at understanding the fundamental mechanisms that control the materials deposition process and the development of new materials and structures for applications in nanoelectronics, sensing, solar energy conversion and solid state lighting.
Reinhart Research Group: https://sites.psu.edu/reinhartgroup
The group's research is interdisciplinary by nature and uses a data-driven approach to facilitate the design, manufacture, and maintenance of advanced materials, whose sought-after functions and properties will be derived from their yet-unknown internal structure. This relationship between structure and function is challenging to understand and even harder to predict because it is nonlinear, high dimensional, and results from physical phenomena at many scales. Traditional materials design has relied on human intuition to interpret patterns in known structure-function pairs and infer new materials with similar and hopefully improved properties, Reinhart’s group aims to use a combination of high-performance physics simulation and data science approaches to arrive at efficient representations of materials that will enable true inverse design of micro-structure.
The J.A.Robinson Research Group: https://sites.psu.edu/robinsonresearch
The group’s interests span a wide range of electronic materials capable of integration into many different technologies. However, low-dimensional materials for electronic and optoelectronic applications have become a prime focus.
Sinnott Research Group: https://sites.psu.edu/sinnott/
Principal research areas consist of two-dimensional and nano-structured materials, gas adsorption and separation in porous solid materials, and mechanical properties of condensed matters.
Susan Trolier-McKinstry Research Group: https://www.mri.psu.edu/welcome-susan-trolier-mckinstry-research-group
The Trolier-McKinstry group research primarily revolves around thin film dielectric and piezoelectric materials. The group works both to probe the fundamental mechanisms that control the magnitude of the achievable properties and to integrate new materials into devices.