MatSE at Illinois 2020 Annual Magazine

MA ▶ TE ▶ RI ▶ AL 2020

MATERIALS SCIENCE & ENGINEERING

Contents 4

The World of Materials A revamped MatSE curriculum is helping undergraduates learn to tackle the materials challenges of the future

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Putting Curriculum into Practice Undergraduates experience research opportunities

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MatSE Undergraduates Win Startup Fellowships Geis’ iVenture Accelerator

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Summer 2020: Not your typical internship experience Students find opportunities despite pandemic conditions

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Exceptional Honors Robert S. Averback, Paul Braun, David Cahill, and Nancy Sottos

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Science Doesn’t Stop Labs adjust to new safety protocols & students adapt with new strategies

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2020 Racheff-Intel Scholars For Outstanding Graduate Research

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Magnetic Moments David Cahill’s work with antiferromagnets

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Graduate Student Research Spotlights New research from the Huang, Leal, Braun, Evans, and Chen groups

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Interviews with Alumni Awardees Paul Clem, Kate Jakubas, and Nerissa Draeger

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New Faculty Hua Wang and Charles Schroeder join the department

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By the Numbers & Recent Faculty Awards and Achievements

Main Office 201 Materials Science and Engineering Building 1304 West Green Street Urbana, IL 61801 217-333-1441 matse@illinois.edu

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Materials Science and Engineering | Fall 2020

MatSE Leadership Nancy Sottos, Head Dallas Trinkle, Associate Head Moonsub Shim, Director of Graduate Studies Laura Nagel, Chief Undergraduate Advisor Nicole Robards, Associate Director of Facilities and Operations Allison Sutton, Assistant Head for Administration Ethan Scott, Associate Director of Advancement Alumni Association Board Members

Dear Alumni, Colleagues, and Friends, Last January I started my tenure as Head of this amazing department, feeling confident that all things were running smoothly thanks to the leadership of Pascal Bellon as Interim Head. Since March though, we have faced many unexpected challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic and have witnessed the momentous calls for racial and social justice. The MatSE faculty, staff and students have responded boldly to reinvent the way we teach, learn and conduct research under these new boundary conditions. We have also renewed our commitment to improve inclusion and diversity in our own academic neighborhood.

I am proud to share with you a few of the unique experiences and accomplishments from the past year. In this issue, we highlight the culmination of our undergraduate curriculum revision and the extraordinary investment we have made in our undergraduate labs. Our undergraduate program moved up in the US News and World Report rankings to #2, and we continue to strive to improve our undergraduate experience. Thanks to some herculean efforts, all of our undergraduate labs are being offered in-person this semester. The continued research excellence and achievements of our faculty and students are also featured. We have made

Meena Banasiak, BS ‘06 Daniel Bergstrom, BS ‘92, PhD ‘97 Martin Brotschul, BS Cer ‘96 Laura Cohen, BS ‘07 Kristina Galis, BS ‘08, MS ‘09 Matthew George, PhD ‘09 Craig Gowin, BS ‘00 Khalid Hattar, PhD ‘09 Liang Hong, PhD ‘07 Dan Lillig, BS Met ‘93, PhD ‘00 Katharine Nickell, BS ChemE ‘03, MS ‘05 Zeba Parkar, PhD ‘11 Michael Pollard, BS ‘97, MS ‘98 Howard Savage, Vice President, BS Met ‘84, MS Met ‘88, PhD Met ‘91 Alp Sehirlioglu, PhD ‘05 Donna Senft, PhD, ‘94 Kyle Wilcoxen, President, BS ‘06 Managing Editor: Steph M. Adams, Marketing and Communications Contributing writers: Lois Yoksoulian, Illinois News Bureau Daniel Le Ray Contributing photographer:

a safe and successful transition back to work in our research labs, including the shared user

L. Brian Stauffer, Illinois News Bureau

facilities of the MRL which have been up and running smoothly since June. While the coming

Design:

months will remain challenging, I am confident we will continue to innovate ways to excel in

Patricia Mayer

our research, teaching, and service missions, and I am thankful for the continued support of

Image credits: Cover: “A Cleanroom World,” Haibo Gao; Page 2: “Cadmium Sulphide Nanorods,” Sangyoon Shim; Page 3 top right: “MoS₂ monolayer flake,” Yoojin Ahn; Page 11: “Charge density difference between layered In0.5Ga0.5P and GaP semiconductors,” André Schleife; Back cover: “Lipid-polymer hybrid materials showing platelet structure,” Yoo Kyung Go.

our MatSE family of alumni.

Nancy Sottos, Head

A special thank you to Carly DeFilippo, Hannah Harris, and Ali Nunes — Communications Interns

matse.illinois.edu | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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Pictured: Lingyun Xu, Senior

The World of Materials

A REVAMPED MATERIALS SCIENCE CURRICULUM IS HELPING UNDERGRADUATES LEARN TO TACKLE THE MATERIALS CHALLENGES OF THE FUTURE.

WRITTEN BY DANIEL LE RAY

BY THEIR SENIOR YEAR, MAJORS Access to innovative research, cuttingedge lab technology, and greater flexibility —these are just a few of the benefits of a new undergraduate materials science and engineering curriculum at Illinois.

“In materials science, there’s so much overlap and, essentially, so many subdisciplines,” explained Dallas Trinkle, Willett Faculty Scholar and associate head of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. “We felt more and more that it made sense to give students more flexibility and revamp the curriculum in a way that would allow that.”

Where students used to pick a “concentration” during their junior year, the new model emphasizes just how inherently interdisciplinary materials science is by

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Materials Science and Engineering | Fall 2020

HAVE TAKEN SIX LABORATORY COURSES—TWICE AS MANY AS IN THE OLD CURRICULUM. offering juniors and seniors a wider range of labs and the ability to delve into more specialties, from biomaterials and polymers to composites and materials for energy and the environment.

This curricular revamp has resulted in a “unique model in materials science and engineering education across the United States,” Trinkle added.

During this process, the department also purchased nearly $750,000 in upgraded lab equipment, including a scanning electron

microscope used in all senior labs, sputter deposition and stress measurement systems for a class on thin films, and a discovery rheometer, which measures the effects of different forces on polymers The trajectory for a new major begins with foundational courses—chemistry, physics, calculus, and an intro to materials science—and continues with sophomore classes that examine how these fields come together. These include the mechanics of materials, quantum physics, and phase relations. Their third year covers topics such as the microstructures of materials, as well as offering multiple labs and electives.

By their senior year, majors have taken six laboratory courses—twice as many as in the old curriculum.

THE NEW CURRICULUM INCORPORATES “In an engineering discipline like materials science, lab courses are really crucial,” explained Trinkle. “We think it’s a great experience for the students. They have more experience in labs; they have more variety of labs,” ranging from electronic materials to photovoltaics or materials theory.

Many seniors also take on internships or research projects. This is reflected in another change to the department’s academics: the addition of computational materials science.

“Industry has a lot of interest in getting students with experience using computational tools,” Trinkle said. As such, the new curriculum incorporates this across the board “to help students understand concepts, but also see these vehicles being used in an engineering context and prepare them to be

familiar with these tools when they go off to industry or into research.”

These curricular changes also warranted the creation of new spaces for undergraduates.

“We have the advantage of dedicated instructional labs, whereas many others have to share research equipment and space,” said Nicole Robards, associate director of facilities and operations. “We also increased the footprint of our labs by renovating a couple of spaces to allow for future expansion with newly created modules.”

The value in majoring in materials science is directly related to its interdisciplinarity, Trinkle added.

“If you think about the challenges that society has going forward—coming up with new energy solutions, making new antibiotics

COMPUTATIONAL TOOLS ACROSS THE BOARD. and medicine delivery, biomaterials problems, recycling—many, if not most, are ultimately materials challenges. It’s not that we don’t know what the problem is. We know what the problem is, but oftentimes it’s that we can’t translate that into sustainable materials or make the materials we need to use.”

A degree in materials science puts UIUC graduates in a position to take on such challenges: “We think we have the best curriculum in materials science right now across the United States. And that will put students in the best position they can to really make impacts in all of these different fields.”

New experimental tools • Neoscope Benchtop SEM System • Horiba Raman Confocal Microscope • TA Instruments Discovery Differential Scanning Calorimeter • TA Instruments DHR2 Rheometer • Toho Technology Precision Surface Stress Analyzer • Rigaku Miniflex X-Ray Diffraction System

Pictured: Blake Cedergren, Senior

matse.illinois.edu | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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Putting Curriculum Into Practice UNDERGRADUATES EXPERIENCE RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES

“THE OPPORTUNITY TO

Ian Flueck, another junior in MatSE and a member of the Autonomous Materials Systems member of the Krogstad Research Group, APPLY THEORY IN A HANDSGroup led by Professor Nancy R. Sottos, is focusing is conducting research on ternary diboride on developing self-healing materials for oil and thin films for extreme environments. Her ON ENVIRONMENT FRAMES gas pipelines. Specifically, Ian says, “the challenge project focuses on understanding the effects is to synthesize a polymer microcapsule system ACADEMIC COURSEWORK of aluminum in transition metal diboride that can be embedded inside polymer matrix films at high temperatures by studying their WITHIN THE LARGER FIELD composite materials to impart self-healing crystallization and oxidation kinetics, which properties to the bulk material. Self-healing will allow for improvements in their stability OF MATERIALS SCIENCE AND strategies can extend lifecycle, improve durability, and overall performance.

ENGINEERING. and reduce costs, hopefully accelerating the On her participation in undergraduate development and adoption of composite -Ian Flueck research, Dana says, “undergraduate research materials in industry.” There are many benefits has not only allowed me to work on projects to conducting research as an undergraduate, but for Ian he says one and learn lab practices, but it has given me experience writing papers major benefit is that “the opportunity to apply theory in a hands-on and presenting my work. My opportunities from research have also environment frames academic coursework within the larger field of connected me to outstanding researchers I continue to admire, and materials science and engineering.” other enthusiastic undergraduates across the country with whom I Dana Yun, a junior in MatSE and a

”

have made wonderful friendships.”

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Materials Science and Engineering | Fall 2020

THREE MATSE UNDERGRADUATES WIN STARTUP FELLOWSHIPS

iVenture

Alex Kosyakov, sophomore

The Gies College of Business’ iVenture is the educational accelerator for top student startups in the University of Illinois system. Student teams, in close consultation with advisors, can access up to $10,000 in seed funding to source critical early-stage materials, supplies, services, and opportunities.

Ritin Joseph, sophomore

Siddharth Bhujle, junior

“Natrion is a battery startup that we’ve been working on for the better part of the last two years. Our safer and more affordable solid-state sodium-ion technology makes independent solar power generation cost-effective and sustainable for homes, farms, and the military. Basically, power produced by a solar array is mostly unusable, unless paired with a battery-based energy storage system that can manage it,” Kosyakov explains.

“The lithium batteries being used right now, though, are too expensive for widespread use by households and businesses and too unstable in extreme environments to be viable in military applications. We set out to solve this problem by taking the outside-of-the-box approach of optimizing a battery for inherent stability and affordability before focusing on performance.

“The Natrion of today is an entirely different company than the Natrion that first entered iVenture. The amount of advisory and mentorship that we are able to receive, not just from the iVenture team, but also the massive network associated with the program, has truly turned our company around. Whatever challenge we come across, there’s someone involved with iVenture who can help. The Midwest NSF I-Corps program component of iVenture has also been particularly beneficial in informing how we can best develop our product for our intended endusers.

“One of the reasons that Ritin and I wanted to come to the University of Illinois was the school’s sheer wealth of entrepreneurial resources. It’s truly unparalleled. If you’re thinking about a start-up, there are so many ways to get help in getting started, whether it’s participating in SocialFuze or Cozad, or just having a call with the wonderful staff of the Technology Entrepreneur Center. Taking advantage of as many of these resources as you can will let you turn an idea into a true business opportunity.”

“I’m working on CamUX, where we have a mission to help people with limited motor skills have more seamless interactions with technology,” said Siddharth Bhujle. “We are developing a wearable device, in the form of a pair of eyeglasses, to conduct eye-tracking with embedded cameras. This, combined with a selection of ability buttons/switches for a customizable experience, will allow people to control mouse function seamlessly; eyetracking, for cursor control; and the ability to conduct clicks. I’m very interested in humancomputer interaction.

“I wanted to help people who lack sufficient access to information in the first place: people who struggle to interface with these information-accessing devices. From here, I hope to bring more advanced technology to market that would make information even more accessible, to everyone, at any given time.”

matse.illinois.edu || University University of of Illinois Illinois at at Urbana-Champaign Urbana-Champaign matse.illinois.edu

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Summer 2020

Clarissa Domanus, senior Texas Instruments

Clarissa Domanus, a summer 2020 intern at Texas Instruments (TI), found that her role as a Processing Engineer in the plasma group of one of the wafer fabs translated well to a virtual environment. “Half of my work was experimental design to try and get rid of defects some of our processes were adding to the wafers. I chose what parameters to test, how to tweak those parameters, and then went through the complex fab control system to actually implement the experiment remotely in real time,” Clarissa says. “My mentor would go into the fab to manually run some experiments for me that couldn’t be run remotely, which was super helpful.” The biggest challenge was not being able to physically see what she was working on. “My mentor tried to give me a mini fab tour to show me what I was working with, but of course the cell service in the fab wasn’t great, and I couldn’t see anything in detail.” Overall though, Clarissa still felt like she was able to accomplish a lot during her time with the company. Originally scheduled to be in Dallas with a May start day, the internship was shortened and went completely virtual.

When reflecting on her time at TI, Clarissa says, “it was awesome that TI chose to support the interns and hold true to their promises of summer employment, and they provided everything I needed to do well remotely for a couple months.”

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Materials Science and Engineering | Fall 2020

NOT YOUR TYPICAL INTERNSHIP EXPERIENCE

Talen Sehgal, senior Chevron Corporation

Talen Sehgal, a Facilities Engineering intern at the Chevron Corporation this past summer, had his 12-week internship in Salt Lake City, UT changed to an 8-week virtual internship. The switch led to some early frustration, but overall he says, “as my team started to work together more, I found that we bonded and were able to complete projects quickly and efficiently.” Due to the online shift, Talen worked with a five-person intern team from varying engineering disciplines on three projects as opposed to working one-on-one with a supervisor. Regarding the switch to a group setting, Talen says, “as a returning intern, it gave me an opportunity to provide some knowledge of resources that might be relevant, take a leadership role on the team, and explore roles and responsibilities that I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to experience.” One of the tough parts of this change was the shift from a Materials Engineering intern to a general Facilities Engineering intern, but even that ended up being a great learning experience. “The position was a little more general mechanical engineering focused, but I was able to pull in good amounts of my knowledge on materials to help make recommendations,” says Talen. “In the end, I was able to gain a lot of experience in an area that I usually wouldn’t have been exposed to, which was great!”

Grace Levita, junior Procter and Gamble

Grace Levita, a Research and Development intern in packaging at Procter & Gamble (P&G) this past summer, says the switch to a virtual internship was smoother than she had expected. “P&G did an absolutely incredible job in creating meaningful projects for the interns that could be accomplished virtually and kept us connected to a wonderful network of technical coaches and mentors.”

Rather than moving to Cincinnati for the summer, Grace worked from home where she says “an initial challenge was getting into the swing of a professional routine while being in the comfortable setting of my home, but I was able to work through this by setting a strong schedule for my day and taking regular breaks!” When reflecting on her 12-week virtual internship, Grace says “this experience has taught me a very important lesson: the power of optimism! It is quite easy to sit around and look at all of the negatives about an internship moving 100% virtual.”

“With a positive outlook and trying to make the most of the situation, I found myself appreciating some of the benefits of a virtual internship, such as getting to spend more time with my family at home and becoming wellversed in the different features of Zoom and Microsoft Teams.” Grace is looking forward to having the opportunity to return to P&G as a summer 2021 intern.

Nancy Sottos elected to National Academy of Engineering Election to the National Academy of Engineering is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer.

Sottos was recognized for her contributions to the design and applications of self-healing and multifunctional materials. Sottos is the Department Head and Swanlund Chair of Materials Science and Engineering and leads the Autonomous Materials Systems group at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at Illinois. She also is affiliated with the Departments of Mechanical Science and Engineering and Aerospace Engineering, and the Materials Research Laboratory.

Professor Emeritus Dr. Robert S. Averback receives 2020 Robert Cahn Award The Robert Cahn Award is given by the Journal of Nuclear Materials and the committee of NuMat 2020, the Nuclear Materials Conference, based on a lifelong contribution to the field of nuclear materials.

This award recognizes a scientist of high academic profile in the field of nuclear materials who has the ability to communicate science to a broad audience and has demonstrated an interest in breaking down barriers between scientific disciplines.

Paul Braun and David Cahill awarded Grainger Distinguished Chairs in Engineering The Grainger Distinguished Chair in Engineering is bestowed in recognition of distinguished scholarly achievements and leadership in promoting collaborative research.

Paul Braun is the Director of the Materials Research Laboratory and was named the Ivan Racheff Professor of Materials Science and Engineering in 2011. He also has a co-appointment as a professor in chemistry and is affiliated with the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering and the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. The Braun group has advanced the synthesis of new functional materials with 3D nano and mesoscale architectures. David Cahill was named the Donald B. Willett Professor of Engineering in 2005 and served as Department Head of MatSE from 2010 to 2018. Cahill has made significant contributions to materials characterization and materials physics in the area of thermal transport. matse.illinois.edu | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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Science doesn’t stop LABS ADJUST TO NEW SAFETY PROTOCOLS & STUDENTS ADAPT WITH NEW STRATEGIES

Justine Paul: “My research is focused on understanding the experimental techniques in which we can harness the instabilities during frontal ring opening metathesis polymerization of cyclic olefins, with specific focus on the monomer dicyclopentadiene. We hope to be able to utilize this new manufacturing platform technology based on a thermally driven reaction-diffusion system to implement complex architectures and emergent surface patterns in engineering materials.

“Recently, we have implemented new schedules for the lab along with signups occuring on Sundays. This change has positively impacted me as I am definitely way more mindful about carefully planning out my experiments ahead of time in order to be the most productive during my shifts. Also, with the collaborative nature of our group, my collaborators and I had to become very adaptive and creative in ways in which we transfer samples among each other.

“With Zoom & Slack being popular ways of communication, it has made communicating with my collaborators on a daily basis extremely effortless. My advice to incoming students working in the lab is to find a schedule that works for you. This may take some time, but once you are able to find a schedule, it will allow you to settle into a routine. A schedule is also super helpful and beneficial when trying to find the appropriate work-life balance for yourself. The more you can plan out your day for both your professional and personal life, the more positive results you’ll start seeing both in and out of the lab. Always remember to take time for yourself as you are only young once! Work hard, play hard!”

Sarith Bandara, Leal Group

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Materials Science and Engineering | Fall 2020all 2020

Justine Paul, Sottos Group

Sarith Bandara: “I am currently extracting extracellular vesicles (EVs) from cell cultures and investigating how they behave in different hydrogels, mimicking the extracellular matrix. EVs have been hailed as potentially disruptive diagnostic tools for various pathological conditions. Understanding the structures that they assume in different tissue micro environments could help in establishing EV-disease links that could further streamline the diagnostic process.

“Apart from wearing a mask and disinfecting common surfaces after using them, much of my lab work is still the same during the pandemic. I do miss interacting with my colleagues in the lab, which we have had to minimize for obvious reasons. Having to minimize human interaction means that reserving time for shared instruments that are on high demand is harder than usual. Thankfully, the MSEB staff ensured that all routine checks like eyewashes were carried out while labs were still closed, so there were no nasty surprises awaiting us when we returned.

“Since we are an experimental lab, the temporary closing of the labs meant that we could not carry out experiments that are crucial for data collection and testing hypotheses. I used this time to read more research papers and analyze data. I also decided to bring my guitar, which had collected quite the layer of dust, out of retirement!

“Some advice for new students: people are more comfortable cooking in their own kitchen than in someone else’s. After you have gone through the required training, take the time to familiarize yourself with the layout of the lab so that you know where instruments are and what chemicals are already available for use. If there is no lab inventory available, maybe invest the time to start one yourself. You need to make the lab your kitchen! Asking for help is not a weakness! Ask if you don’t know something.

“Other grad students in the lab will be more than willing to help (unless you are really unlucky). Chances are, they had the same questions when they started.”

The 2020 Racheff-Intel Award Winners FOR OUTSTANDING GRADUATE RESEARCH IN MATERIALS SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

Leon Dean, Sottos Group

Materials Science and Engineering graduate students Leon Dean (Sottos Group), Varun Mohan (Jain Group), and Zihao Ou (Chen Group) are the 2020 Racheff-Intel Award recipients. In memory of Ivan Racheff, a distinguished alumnus of the University of Illinois, the Racheff-Intel Award is given to current graduate students in MatSE at the University of Illinois who have shown excellence in research in any sub-field. The award consists of a plaque and up to $1,000 financial support to attend a conference at which the student will present the relevant research.

Based primarily out of the Beckman Institute, Leon Dean works on frontal polymerization: “rapid, energy-efficient manufacturing techniques for bulk polymer materials.” Leon, along with collaborators from a multitude of departments, recently used frontal polymerization “to make highly stretchable elastomers for the first time, along with shape memory polymers that respond to temperature by changing their shape” and is currently developing 3D printing methods for these materials.

Leon became interested in materials

Varun Mohan, Jain Group

Zihao Ou, Chen Group

research as an undergraduate at The University of Texas after taking a materials class and subsequently getting involved in undergraduate research with polymer materials where, he says, “I was hooked!”

As a member of the Jain Group, Varun Mohan focuses on “studies of unusual photochemical transformations in alcohols under plasmonic excitation and Lewis acid catalysis via gold chloride, and lowtemperature methane chlorination for natural-gas upgradation.” On how he became interested in this sub-field, Mohan said, “My longstanding concerns about environmental degradation and climate change led me to be interested in advancing technological solutions to such issues. The Jain group at Illinois was therefore a natural fit.”

While pursuing his B.S. in physics, Zihao Ou says he “constantly asked myself what is missing between the seemingly wellexplained physical laws and complicated real nature. This led me to pursue the direction of self-assembly, where individual building blocks interact with each other and form into large scale structures, with emerging new properties.” His current research with

the Chen Group has “provided insights in charting the energy diagram, fundamental interactions, the formation of prenucleation precursors, and interfacial energy of crystals using in-situ liquid-phase transmission electron microscopy (TEM).”

The three researchers have this advice for fellow students, “It is important to find the direction that you have passion,” says Zihao. “I sincerely believe in a quote from Richard Feynman, ‘Explore the world.

Nearly everything is really interesting if you go into it deeply enough.’ ” Leon says, “you will feel lost and frustrated at times, but just remember that is normal, and if you keep with it, you will eventually have a breakthrough.” Varun advises that, “taking imaginative approaches to the established problems in the field is necessary to do good research. The possibilities are immense and very simple ideas can yield great benefits. So be thorough, but also keep an open mind.

“Having wide ranging interests in a variety of fields really helps in cross-fertilization of ideas.”

matse.illinois.edu || University University of Urbana-Champaign matse.illinois.edu of Illinois Illinois at at Urbana-Champaign

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WRITTEN BY DANIEL LE RAY

Magnetic Moments

At Illinois, materials scientists are investigating a select group of magnetic materials that could lead to innovations in data storage, mechanical engineering, and more.

David Cahill, Grainger Distinguished Chair

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Materials Science and Engineering | Fall 2020

Understanding the atomic properties of a subset of magnetic materials may be the key to more efficient digital information storage, according to David Cahill, a Grainger Distinguished Chair of Engineering and Team Leader in the Illinois Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (I-MRSEC).

Founded in 2017, I-MRSEC’s goals are twofold: to advance the fundamental science of materials with an eye toward applications; and to provide students, the community, and historically underrepresented groups with access to cutting- edge research. Cahill leads one of I-MRSEC’s two interdisciplinary research groups, IRG1, which focuses on a group of materials known as antiferromagnets.

“We’ve taken on this little piece of the materials world— materials that are metallic and have antiferromagnetic order,” said Cahill.

Antiferromagnets are not like the magnets we stick to our fridge doors or study in high school science class.

These are ferromagnets, which “have underlying magnetic moments associated with each atom, and if you add them all up, they have a net direction,” explained Cahill.

This magnetic direction is useful for things like making motors, transformers, or magnetic storage devices.

Antiferromagnets, on the other hand, consist of atoms with magnetic moments that are ordered in opposition to one another.

“In these kinds of systems, if you average all the atoms’ magnetic moments, then it sums to zero, so there’s no external magnetization that can be used in the conventional ways,” Cahill said. There still is an underlying direction—“it’s just very difficult to observe.”

Observing, measuring, and potentially manipulating the magnetic moments associated with the atoms in antiferromagnets is one of IRG1’s primary goals.

“It’s a new initiative, so that has its own challenges,” said Cahill, whose background is in transport properties—how materials conduct heat or current, for example. “But I think it’s also quite exciting to have something

“We are working at a very fundamental level, studying the basic properties of the crystal and the magnetic order, and how it interacts with current and light. Those are the kind of fundamental, intriguing sorts of scientific principles that make these materials interesting at a bigger picture level.”

that everybody can contribute to, and not have the legacy of some other work inhibiting this new direction.”

Cahill explained why IRG1 is targeting metallic antiferromagnets in particular. Typical ferromagnetic materials, like iron or nickel, tend to be metals and therefore conduct electricity; antiferromagnets tend to be insulators.

“Because most antiferromagnetic materials are not electrical conductors, you can’t connect leads to them and currents don’t help you,” Cahill said. “But it was discovered four or five years ago that electrical currents could be used to change the order and also detect the order in these materials.”

This innovation led to a renewed interest in this class of materials. And by honing in on metallic antiferromagnets—that is, antiferromagnets that can act as electrical conductors—the group hopes that its findings may have greater potential in the worlds of technology, electrical engineering, and beyond.

Because the science behind antiferromagnets is interdisciplinary and cutting-edge, IRG1 includes seven faculty members spanning physics, engineering, and materials science. The team is interested in “both how electrical currents or light from lasers can affect the order and how electrical currents or lasers can be used to detect the order in these materials.”

Cahill elaborated on some of the science behind their work: “The interaction between electrons, phonons, and magnons is part of what we investigate to understand these fundamental mechanisms of how you can write or manipulate the magnetic order using electrical currents or light.”

Phonons are a quantized wave of how the atoms in the material are vibrating, while magnons are a quantized wave of the spinning motions that the atoms’ magnetic moments exhibit. The group’s most recent paper documents efforts to measure how much energy it takes to change the atomic order of an antiferromagnetic material’s magnetic moments— something referred to as magnetocrystalline anisotropy.

Though future applications may be years or even decades away, one area in which IRG1’s research has significant potential is digital data storage—RAM for computers and cellphones.

Cahill explained that if the magnetic moments of individual atoms in an antiferromagnetic material could be changed from opposing one another in one direction to opposing one another in a different direction, “those states, in principle, could be used to store information.”

Atoms pointing north and south could be bit zero and atoms pointing east and west could be bit one, for example. And because the

magnetic moments in an antiferromagnet are not affected by external fields, computer chips made from these materials could also be made more compact and use less power.

“Those are basically all the things you want out of a memory: you want it to be dense, you want it to use low amounts of energy, and you want it to be fast,” Cahill said, adding that advancing innovation in this area is still very much at the level of basic science.

“We are working at a very fundamental level, studying the basic properties of the crystal and the magnetic order, and how it interacts with current and light. Those are the kind of fundamental, intriguing sorts of scientific principles that make these materials interesting at a bigger picture level.”

In addition to sharing his work with colleagues and students, Cahill is most excited by the interdisciplinary nature of his research group.

The faculty members working with IRG1 are an end-to-end research team, “from people who grow materials and study their structure to people who do computer models to understand how electrons and phonons and magnons behave, to people who are experimentalists studying interactions with light or how you might manipulate things with electrical currents,” he said.

“There’s a whole set of steps involved that have to come together to make advances.”

matse.illinois.edu | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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Illustration of a bend in bilayer graphene.

Graphic courtesy of Blanka Janicek, Huang Group

GRADUATE STUDENT RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT: EDMUND HAN, HUANG GROUP

Graphene:

THE MORE YOU BEND IT, THE SOFTER IT GETS

New research by the Huang group and colleagues in mechanical engineering combines atomic-scale experimentation with computer modeling to determine how much energy it takes to bend multilayer graphene,­a question that has eluded scientists since graphene was first isolated. The findings are reported in the journal Nature Materials.

Most of the current research on graphene targets the development of nanoscale electronic devices. Yet, researchers say that many technologies – from stretchable electronics to tiny robots so small that they cannot be seen with the naked eye – require an understanding of the mechanics of graphene, particularly how it flexes and bends, to unlock their potential.

“The bending stiffness of a material is one of its most fundamental mechanical properties,” said Edmund Han, a materials science and engineering graduate student and study coauthor. “Even though we have been studying graphene for two decades, we have yet to resolve this very fundamental property. The reason is that different research groups have come up with different answers that span across orders of magnitude.”

The team discovered why previous research efforts disagreed. “They were either bending the material a little or bending it a lot,” said Jaehyung Yu, a mechanical science and engineering graduate student and study co-author. “But we found that graphene behaves differently in these two situations. When you bend multilayer graphene a little, it acts more like a stiff plate or a piece of wood. When you bend it a lot, it acts like a stack of papers where the atomic layers can slide past each other.”

“Ultrasoft slip-mediated bending in few-layer graphene” Nature Materials,. DOI: 10.1038/s41563-019-0529-7

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Materials Science and Engineering | Fall 2020

Edmund Han is a materials science and engineering graduate student and co-author of this study.

“For the paper and in this research project generally, I helped with mechanical modelling for determining the bending stiffness of 2D materials. I also performed sample preparation via focused ion beam (FIB) milling, electron microscopy to measure the bending profile of the 2D materials, and image analysis to extract geometric parameters required to calculate the bending stiffness of my specimen.

“The most exciting aspect of my research experience is being on the forefront of nanotechnology and using cutting edge instruments to do so.

“My research experience has taught me to trust and rely on my friends and colleagues as a strong and supportive network for my graduate career.

“Pinshane Huang has been an amazing mentor and role model through every milestone in my graduate career. I would not be where I am today without her guidance.

“In the future, I hope to expand my research capabilities and continue working at the forefront of materials science, whether in academia, national laboratories, or industry.”

Tiny sensors

GRADUATE STUDENT RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT: MARILYN PORRAS-GOMEZ, LEAL GROUP

MEASURE OXYGEN TRANSFER The Leal group and colleagues have developed tiny sensors that measure oxygen transport in bovine lung tissue. The study – which establishes a new framework for observing the elusive connection between lung membranes, oxygen flow and related disease – is published in the journal Nature Communications.

For lung tissue to perform effectively, it must be able to transfer oxygen and other gases through its membranes, the researchers said. One way this happens is through a substance—called a surfactant—that reduces lung liquid surface tension to allow this exchange to occur. However, a surfactant called cardiolipin is known to be overly abundant in tissues infected with bacterial pneumonia, the study reports.

The new sensors are thin silicon- and graphene-based films that contain tiny transistors that measure oxygen permeation between biological surfaces. “A thin film of lung membranes is spread out over many tiny sensors at the device surface, giving us a better picture of what is going on over a relatively large area rather than just a spot,” Leal said.

The team used the sensors to compare oxygen transfer between healthy and diseased membranes. The samples consisted of a bovine lipid-protein extract commonly used to treat premature infants suffering respiratory distress, with a portion of the samples combined with cardiolipin.

“We found that more oxygen passes through the tissue diseased by cardiolipin,” Leal said. “Which may help explain previous observations of there being an off-balance of oxygen in the blood of pneumonia patients.

Even though an increase in oxygen flow could be perceived as positive, it is important to keep the natural exchange that occurs in the lung – transferring oxygen more rapidly into the bloodstream disrupts this healthy equilibrium.”

The researchers also compared the structure of healthy and diseased tissue using microscopic and X-ray imaging. They found that the tissue combined with cardiolipin showed damaged spots, which they posit may be responsible for increased oxygen transfer and subsequent off-balance oxygen levels in pneumonia patients.

The next stage of this research will be to study lung membranes extracted from healthy and diseased mammalian lungs, Leal said.

EXCERPTED FROM STORY WRITTEN BY LOIS YOKSOULIAN, ILLINOIS NEWS BUREAU

Graphic by Mijung Kim and Marilyn Porras-Gomez “Graphene-based sensing of oxygen transport through pulmonary membranes” Nature Communications, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-14825-9

Marilyn Porras-Gomez is a materials science and engineering graduate student and I-MRSEC fellow. She is a co-author of this study.

“This research was a team effort. My role on the team was to study the lung membranes under healthy and pathological conditions using various characterization techniques available at the Materials Research Laboratory. Later on, I contributed with manuscript writing and the review process. I became more and more involved in the project as time passed.

“To me, two elements were most exciting: first, finding out that lung membranes under pathological conditions behaved significantly differently and changed their structure, and that we were able to image those changes through Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM).

“Second, I found it quite gratifying working in a team of very smart women since it was my first experience working with women only; it helped me feel confident and included, especially as an incoming student.

“This work was one of my first research experiences in MatSE. Therefore it was a great opportunity to gain insights about concepts that have become essential in my PhD research. I also learned from my former lab mate, Mijung Kim, about the specifics of materials preparation and characterization, which also led to us becoming friends.

“Prof. Leal included me in this remarkable project early on after becoming a MatSE student. She believed I could contribute significantly to it, which raised my confidence. She guided the team through the entire process, and delegated responsibilities fairly. Her mentoring skills helped me navigate across this research process. I am always grateful for her constant and insightful input, patience, support and kindness. I have learned a lot just by observing how she tackles research problems.

“This research has become part of the core of my future dissertation. I am currently doing follow-up research on these membranes, and I hope to gain further understanding about their properties thanks to the continued support and guidance of my advisor.” matse.illinois.edu | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

15

FORMER GRADUATE STUDENT RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT: ASHISH KULKARNI, BRAUN GROUP

Researchers gain control over internal structure of self-assembled composite materials Composites made from self-assembling inorganic materials are valued for their unique strength and thermal, optical, and magnetic properties.

However, because self-assembly can be difficult to control, the structures formed can be highly disordered, leading to defects during large-scale production. The Braun group and colleagues have developed a templating technique that instills greater order and gives rise to new 3D structures in a special class of materials, called eutectics, to form new, high-performance materials.

The findings of the collaborative study are published in the journal Nature. “Instead of depositing layers of material individually, we start with a liquid that self-assembles as it solidifies.

This can speed up production and allows us to make larger volumes at one time,” said Paul Braun, professor of materials science and engineering and director of the Materials Research Lab at the U. of I., who led the project. However, self-assembly can lead to problems, he said, as its uncontrolled nature can form defects.

To demonstrate this process of self-assembling liquid in the lab, the team built templates with tiny posts arranged in hexagonal shapes to control the resolidification of a melt containing silver chloride and potassium chloride – a eutectic material that naturally forms layers as it cools.

“Templating is a common practice used in organic polymers processing,” said Ashish Kulkarni, a recent Illinois alumnus and the first author of the study. “However, it is not something that has been explored in inorganic materials processing because inorganic microstructures are more rigid and harder to control.”

The team found that as the silver and potassium chloride melt starts to solidify around the hexagonal-shaped templates, the posts get in the way of the layer formation and produce a composite with an array of different square, triangular and honeycomb-shaped microstructures instead – the specifics of structure depending on the distance between the posts on the template.

“The repeating nature of these templates and newly formed structures reduces the chances for defects to form,” Braun said. “So, not only did we form exciting new microstructures, but we also reduced the number of defects in the resulting composite material.”

EXCERPTED FROM STORY BY LOIS YOKSOULIAN, ILLINOIS NEWS BUREAU “Archimedean lattices emerge in template directed eutectic solidification” Nature, DOI: 10.1038/s41586-019-1893-9 Top graphic: A model showing how a simple layered material, depicted in orange and blue, transforms into a complex Archimedean-structured composite material when it freezes around a template, depicted in gray. Graphic courtesy of Paul Braun.

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Materials Science and Engineering | Fall 2020

“For this work, I performed the directional solidification experiments, microstructure characterization using scanning electron microscopy, and image analysis to determine the factors affecting the emergent morphologies. I also collaborated with a former lab mate to fabricate the starting templates using laser interference lithography and electrodeposition. I was the lead author on this paper, and I came up with the idea of presenting these morphologies as tiling patterns.

“It is intriguing how starting from simple microstructures in the eutectic and the template, we can control the emergent morphologies that have new and non-native symmetries. This is the first time such emergent patterns have been seen in selfassembled inorganic materials.

“The experience of writing such a detailed paper for Nature has been simply amazing. I learnt that there are two halves of publishing research. First, is the actual planning and experimental work, and the other is designing and writing the paper. Both are equally important.

“The unwavering support I received from Paul in pursuing this idea for the paper has been crucial. He helped me improve the presentation of our science in this manuscript.

“I still remember how we went back and forth for every word and sentence of the abstract. Without his support and the time spent on writing the manuscript, this paper would not have been possible.”

New polymer material may help batteries become self-healing, recyclable Lithium-ion batteries are notorious for developing internal electrical shorts that can ignite a battery’s liquid electrolytes, leading to explosions and fires. The Evans group has developed a solid polymer- based electrolyte that can self-heal after damage – and the material can also be recycled without the use of harsh chemicals or high temperatures. The new study, which could help manufacturers produce recyclable, self-healing commercial batteries, is published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

There has been a push by chemists and engineers to replace the liquid electrolytes in lithium-ion batteries with solid materials such

Recyclable electrolyte reverting back to its starting materials. Graphic courtesy of Brian Jing.

as ceramics or polymers, the researchers said. However, many of these materials are rigid and brittle resulting in poor electrolyteto- electrode contact and reduced conductivity.

Past studies have produced solid electrolytes by using a network of polymer strands that are cross-linked to form a rubbery lithium conductor. “This method delays the growth of dendrites; however, these materials are complex and cannot be recovered or healed after damage,” said Graduate Student Brian Jing.

To address this issue, the researchers developed a network polymer electrolyte in which the cross-link point can undergo exchange reactions and swap polymer

strands. In contrast to linear polymers, these networks actually get stiffer upon heating, which can potentially minimize the dendrite problem, the researchers said.

Additionally, they can be easily broken down to recover their monomers, making them recyclable, as well as self-heal after damage to restore their shape and conductivity.

“Most polymers require strong acids and high temperatures to break down,” said materials science and engineering professor and lead author Christopher Evans. “Our material dissolves in water at room temperature, making it a very energy-efficient and environmentally friendly process.”

“Catalyst-free dynamic networks for recyclable, self-healing solid polymer electrolytes” Journal of the American Chemical Society, DOI: 10.1021/jacs.9b09811

GRADUATE STUDENT RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT: BRIAN JING, EVANS GROUP

“My role in this paper involved synthesizing and characterizing the material’s mechanical and conductive properties. For the majority of the project, I have been the lead in conducting experiments and analysis of data.

“Dynamic networks have recently garnered a lot of interest as self-healing and recyclable materials. We wanted to push the capabilities by creating functional dynamic networks, where the material we developed in the paper is able to conduct lithium ions.

“From a technical standpoint, I was able to gain experience with a wide variety of characterization techniques that expanded my knowledge of polymer science. However, the most important thing research has taught me is patience and perseverance.

With research, it is almost guaranteed that nothing will work on the first try. Failure usually continues for a number of following attempts, but it is important to not get discouraged during this time. Research is not easy, or else everyone would do it. You are trying to answer questions that no one knows the answer to. Reminding myself of this allowed me to stay focused and sharpen my critical thinking skills. Another critical lesson I have learned, and am still learning, is the importance of communicating with your peers. There have been many occasions where I received insightful suggestions from my lab mates and friends just from casual conversation. These skills will help me become a motivated and skilled polymer

scientist and engineer.

“Prof. Evans has been a wonderful mentor to me throughout my time in graduate school.

His expertise in polymer chemistry and physics have been extremely beneficial in guiding me through the various challenges of my research projects. In my opinion, Prof. Evans’s best quality is his patience. I really appreciated it my first two years when I was still getting my feet wet with various techniques. He never gets angry when I make mistakes, which really helped me feel comfortable. Additionally, he always values my opinion in regard to data interpretation and challenges me to think critically.

“I would like to take the skills I have learned from research and work in either the field of corporate research or consulting. I am still keeping all options open right now. However, I am a bit of a sneaker aficionado, so my dream job would be to work at Nike.”

RESEARCH SUMMARY (TOP) EXCERPTED FROM STORY WRITTEN

BY LOIS YOKSOULIAN,

matse.illinois.edu | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

17

Illustration of a bend in bilayer graphene.

Graphic courtesy Blanka Janicek, Pinshane Huang Lab:

Graphic courtesy of ACS and the Qian Chen Group

Machine learning peeks into nano-aquariums In the nanoworld, tiny particles such as proteins appear to dance as they transform and assemble to perform various tasks while suspended in a liquid. Recently developed methods have made it possible to watch and record tiny motions, and researchers now take a step forward by developing a machine learning workflow to streamline the process.

The new study, led by Professor Qian Chen, builds upon her past work with liquid-phase electron microscopy and is published in the journal ACS Central Science.

Liquid-phase electron microscopy, which allows researchers to watch nanoparticles interact inside tiny aquarium-like sample containers, is useful for research in medicine,

energy and environmental sustainability and in fabrication of metamaterials, to name a few.

However, it is difficult to interpret the dataset, the researchers said. The video files produced are large, filled with temporal and spatial information, and are noisy due to background signals – in other words, they require a lot of tedious image processing and analysis.

“Developing a method even to see these particles was a huge challenge,” Chen said.

“Figuring out how to efficiently get the useful data pieces from a sea of outliers and noise has become the new challenge.”

“Our program processed information for

three types of nanoscale dynamics including motion, chemical reaction and self-assembly of nanoparticles,” said lead author and graduate student Lehan Yao. “These represent the scenarios and challenges we have encountered in the analysis of liquid-phase electron microscopy videos.” The team has made the source code for the machine learning program used in this study publicly available through the supplemental information section of the paper.

“We feel that making the code available to other researchers can benefit the whole nanomaterials research community,” Chen said.

EXCERPTED FROM STORY BY LOIS YOKSOULIAN, ILLINOIS NEWS BUREAU Machine Learning to Reveal Nanoparticle Dynamics from Liquid-Phase TEM Videos" ACS Central Science, DOI: 10.1021/acscentsci.0c00430

GRADUATE STUDENT RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT: LEHAN YAO, CHEN GROUP

“Analyzing the liquid phase TEM videos has been a difficult problem in our group, so it’s an exciting thing to develop a method that solves the problems not only for me but for other group members. And more importantly,

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Materials Science and Engineering | Fall 2020

we regard this work as a contribution to the whole liquid-phase TEM or the general microscopy community. We are excited and proud to bring efficiency to other people struggling in image/video analysis, and that is also why we chose the ACS Central Science, an open-source journal, to publish our paper.

“The most important thing I have learned through this research is to broaden your horizon to interdisciplinary areas. Machine learning was just a buzz word for me before this research. Through this research, I learned that machine learning is a very welldeveloped area in which you don’t have to study from the fundamental mathematical and statistical principles, and people in this community are very friendly and willing to help. So, in the future, not limited to machine

learning, when I get stuck in some puzzles, I can have a look into the related interdisciplinary areas. That might give me some unexpected surprise!

“I really appreciate my advisor Qian Chen’s help! It was she who suggested the whole direction of machine learning. She has the ‘bigpicture vision.’ When sometimes I got trapped in the specific problems or even technical details, she can guide me to bypass those problems and get back on the track.

“This paper is the first publication in my Ph.D., and I think it tackled the technical problems for my material research. In the future, with my experience in image/video analysis, I will focus more on solving questions in material science like using electron microscopy to reveal nanoparticle self-assembly mechanisms and pathways.”

Q&A DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI AWARDEE

Before coming to the University of Illinois in 1996 for his PhD in Materials Science and Engineering and Ceramics, Paul Clem received his BS in Materials Science and Engineering with a concentration in physics and electrical engineering in 1991 from University of California-Berkeley. Now, Clem works in high voltage science, developing capacitors for energy storage and conducting lightning and electrical arc effects research.

An Interview with Paul Clem

What did you like most about MatSE at Illinois?

Clem: I enjoyed collaborating with materials science, physics and chemistry professors and students at the Materials Research Lab (MRL) and Beckman Institute. During my undergraduate research, I read papers by Professor David Payne and became interested in electronic ceramics and interdisciplinary research. Working in his group and with others at MRL and Beckman was a great experience for future research collaborations.

What led you to be interested in your area of research?

Clem: I was a materials science undergrad with interests in electrical engineering, solid state physics and chemistry, and wrote a senior thesis on electronic ceramics, which combined many of these interests. Electronic ceramics have controllable dielectric, piezoelectric, electrooptic and electronic properties that have a broad range of device uses.

What advice do you have to those who are interested in pursuing research similar to yours?

Clem: Sometimes it can be hard to identify a discipline that is interesting. Finding opportunities for undergraduate research

or internships, and reading research papers beyond classwork can help find new areas or research that are intriguing and fit your interests.

What experiences in Illinois MatSE led you to where you are today and how did these experiences help you get there?

Clem: Writing initial research project proposals and developing collaborations with fellow students was great preparation for assembling teams for R&D proposals.

Illinois also focused on professional society presentations (e.g. MRS, American Ceramic Society, IEEE) which helped with networking and later job opportunities.

What advice do you have for current students?

Clem: I’d really recommend internships, research exchanges and developing collaborations. Those were some of the most rewarding experiences I had in undergraduate and graduate school, and really helped build capabilities.

We want to hear from you!

Alumni, do you or someone you know have news or a story to share with us?

Do you know anyone who should be nominated for our alumni awards?

Contact: matse@illinois.edu

matse.illinois.edu | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

19

Q&A EARLY CAREER AWARDEE

Kate Jakubas received her BS in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Illinois with a concentration in metals and a minor in philosophy in 2006. Later, in 2013, she went on to get her Masters in Environmental Engineering from the Armour College of Engineering at Illinois Institute of Technology.

An Interview with Kate Jakubas

What job do you have now? Tell us about what you do.

Jakubas: I am the founder at Meliora Cleaning Products, where we make people and planetfriendly home cleaning products. I run the operations at our Chicago manufacturing facility: figuring out how to make new products, optimizing processes, tracking and lowering the waste produced, keeping our employees safe and earning above a living wage.

What steps have you taken to make your business successful?

Jakubas: My business is built around a triplebottom-line approach. Rather than focus solely on financial returns, we consider 3Ps: People, Planet and Profit. We even certify our business against a third party standard (we are a Certified B Corporation) to show our commitment to all of these areas. Looking at how we treat people (customers and employees) and the environment (through ingredient and packaging choices) helps improve our overall business and contributes to a healthy bottom line — it all works together. I also adopt best practices from anywhere I can find them: past jobs, brewery tours, friends that share how they work. I’m also an adjunct professor of social entrepreneurship to foster more Chicago businesses that take a similar approach.

What led you to be interested in your area of research?

Jakubas: The process of elimination and following the next things of interest. Listening to that little “ding” that goes off into my head that says, “THAT’s interesting! I wonder about...” and following where it leads. Noticing when something I’m doing feels boring, uncomfortable in a bad way, or otherwise tells me there’s a dead end at the end of that.

What advice do you have to those who are interested in pursuing a career similar to yours?

Jakubas: Don’t be afraid of mixing interests and pursuits. The most interesting and successful projects are often a hybrid of topics; I’m a blend of materials science training with artisan soap making experience, so I have a much different approach than others with a

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Materials Science and Engineering | Fall 2020

more artistic/handmade approach. I also run a small factory after working at several big ones, which helps us tremendously in running things efficiently.

What experiences in Illinois MatSE led you to where you are today and how did these experiences help you get there?

Jakubas: I think every class, lab, and internship does a little bit to shape where you’re headed. Early classes in MatSE showed me I loved time in the lab, but didn’t want to do research full time. An off-campus internship helped me decide to choose Metals over Plastics as my concentration, and also helped me figure out that I didn’t want to work for a gigantic corporation when I graduated.

What advice do you have for current students?

Jakubas: Seize the resources available to you!

A no-cost healthcare service steps away? Use it. Extremely smart professors and graduate students who are literally sitting in their office waiting for you to ask them questions about the course they are teaching or their research?

Go talk to them! Fellow students who have cracked the code on that homework set? Study with them.

What advice do you have for young entrepreneurs?

Jakubas: Take an action-oriented approach: what is the next thing you can actually DO to move your project forward? Can you do a tiny version of the giant thing you’re picturing? A one-time event rather than planning an annual or daily event for the rest of time? We often get stuck picturing how amazing and perfect our business or product will be, and it traps us into being stuck and not putting something out there. I’m a recovering perfectionist, and it can be hard to decide when something is good enough to call done, but when there is only one of you, you have to keep moving!

Don’t be one of those people with an amazing fantasy business idea that isn’t taking action - the disparaging term we have for that is “wantrepreneur.” You can tell when someone is a “wantrepreneur” when you ask what the next thing they are going to do on their project is, and they have no idea.

Q&A LOYALTY AWARDEE

Nerissa Draeger received her PhD from the University of Illinois Materials Science and Engineering program in May, 2000 with a specialization in electronic materials. Her advisor was Joe Greene and her thesis was titled, “Si(011) and SiGe(011) gas-source molecular beam epitaxy: surface reconstructions, growth kinetics and Ge segregation.”

An Interview with Nerissa Draeger (née Taylor)

What job do you have now?

Draeger: I work for Lam Research Corp, a leading semiconductor equipment supplier for thin film deposition, etch, and other fabrication processes. I’ve held a number of roles in the company from corporate R&D and new product development, to strategic business and intellectual property development. Currently, I am part of the Strategy & Innovation team within the Office of the CTO. As Director of Global University Engagements, I oversee Lam’s academic partnerships and strategic research collaborations in pursuit of disruptive and enabling technologies to advance the semiconductor industry.

What led you to be interested in your area of research?

Draeger: I thought (and still think) that electronic devices are amazing: fabricating them requires hundreds of steps at the micro- and nanoscale with precise electrical, chemical, and mechanical properties. There is a very low tolerance for defects, or your smartphone and laptop won’t work. I think it was that precision and complexity that made it interesting, along with the challenges posed by device scaling in following Moore’s Law. That’s certainly an aspect which has kept me in the field for the last twenty years; I enjoy solving problems and this is an industry that is continuously innovating and pushing boundaries of what is thought to be possible.

What advice do you have to those who are interested in pursuing research similar to yours?

Draeger: This is a great time for students interested in electronic materials. The demand for mainstream semiconductor devices continues to grow and there are so many exciting and new directions such as quantum devices, spintronics, nanomagnetics, etc.

I think there will continue to be room for innovation and growth in this industry.

What did you like most about MatSE at Illinois?

Draeger: There was a great sense of community at UIUC and within the MatSE

department. The department was small enough to know most of the professors and other graduate students, but large enough to contain a wide variety of experts and resources. I gained a lot of hands-on experience; which is how I learn best. The MRL has always been a world-class facility, and I benefited from being able to perform my own analyses using the characterization equipment there. My cohort of graduate students socialized and studied together, and I’m still connected to alumni from my research group and remain close to friends I made during my time there.

What experiences in Illinois MatSE led you to where you are today, and how did these experiences help you get there?

Draeger: I think one of the values of an advanced degree is in learning how to learn about a technical project from scratch. Beyond the classwork, I had to learn how to canvas the literature for the current state of the art, devise test plans to explore gaps in that understanding, keep the ultra-high vacuum deposition system running the way it should, and learn how to solve all of the problems that arose. I started as a fairly reserved student and I also had to improve my confidence in technical discussions and presentations. I failed the oral exam part of my qualifying exam the first time I took it and what I needed was more experience with explaining my thought process under pressure. That skill translates well to presenting to executives! So beyond the technical learning I gained as part of my PhD, I also developed soft skills that have made an impact on my career.

What advice do you have for current students?

Draeger: If you’re interested in industrial research, consider a graduate degree because it will open more doors and prepare you for a wider variety of jobs. If you’re already a grad student, I encourage you to diversify your interests and skills. A PhD will make you into an expert on a particular scientific aspect, but your career will also depend on being able to make connections between diverse technologies and ideas.

matse.illinois.edu | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

21

Hua Wang joins MATSE as assistant professor

Hua Wang joins the department after completing a postdoctoral position with Professor David J. Mooney’s group at Harvard University from 2016–2020. He earned a BS in Polymer Science and Engineering from the University of Science and Technology of China in 2012 and a PhD in Materials Science and Engineering at UrbanaChampaign in 2016.

Wang’s research will take advantage of several strong affiliations at Illinois, including the Cancer Center at Illinois, Carle College of Medicine, the Department of Bioengineering, and the Beckman Institute.

With a theme of leveraging chemistry and materials tools to address biomedical questions and improve human health, Wang’s lab will work on biomaterials, metabolic cell labeling, cancer immunotherapy, and immunoengineering for regenerative medicine. These research directions are built upon his PhD and postdoctoral trainings with his own interpretation of biomedical challenges and opportunities, which he expects will evolve in the future.

“My lab will conduct research at the intersection of multidisciplinary fields across materials science, chemistry, bioengineering, and immunology,” said Wang. “I welcome students from different departments and who are interested in biomedical research to join us. They will be able to acquire versatile skill sets and bring their expertise to interdisciplinary research fields, which will be beneficial for their career development.”

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Materials Science and Engineering | Fall 2020

Charles Schroeder, Ray and Beverly Mentzer professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, joins MATSE Charles Schroeder has been an affiliate faculty in MatSE since 2016. He will hold a joint appointment (25%) with Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.

Schroeder’s research aims to understand the physical and chemical properties of soft materials using single molecule techniques. In recent years, his group has pioneered new methods to precisely interrogate single molecules to understand materials properties ranging from nonequilibrium dynamics to charge transport.

At the Beckman Institute where his research is based, Schroeder is Co-Leader of the Molecular Science and Engineering Theme. This highly interdisciplinary research theme is focused on several strategic areas and combines faculty and researchers in theory-driven computational molecular science and experiments. The group also includes ChBE faculty members Charles Sing and Ying Diao; MatSE faculty Chris Evans, Ken Schweizer, Dallas Trinkle, and Qian Chen; and MechSE faculty Randy Ewoldt.

“This is a great opportunity for experimentalists to work with computational scientists in the area of molecular materials, combining new advances in automated synthesis with data-driven design and understanding of new pathways and molecules,” Schroeder said.

MATERIALS SCIENCE & ENGINEERING

By the Numbers

2

#

Ranked undergrad program in nation U.S. News & World Report

10

Chairs and Professorships

1

NIH New Innovator Awards

1

Packard Fellowship

29

5,628

FY 19-20 Enrollments PHD 162

and growing

MS 38

MATSE Alumni

UNDERGRADUATE 316

3

DOE Early Career Awards

8% 21%

WORLD-CLASS 1 Presidential Early FACULTY

20%

Career Award

8

NSF CAREER Awards

1

ONR Young Investigator Award

$12.6M

51%

FY20 Research Expenditures

$10.8M

FY20 New Grants

2

NSF

DoE

Sloan Research Fellowships

$15.4M

2

Endowment

AFOSR Young Investigaror Awards

DoD

Industry

$568,000 Income funds student awards, scholarships, fellowships, faculty professorships, research and general operations for FY20

2019-20 Faculty Awards and Achievements Waltraud Kriven

Invited Member, EU Academy of Sciences

Robert S. Averback Robert Cahn Award 2020

Jessica Krogstad

2020 TMS Early Career Faculty Fellow Award

Paul Braun

Grainger Distinguished Chair in Engineering

Nicola Perry

2019 NSF CAREER Award and 2019 J. Bruce

David Cahill

AAAS Fellow; 2020 Tau Beta Pi Daniel C.

Wagner, Jr. Award, Electrochemical Society

Drucker Eminent Faculty Award; Grainger

Laura Nagel

2020 Engineering Council Outstanding

Distinguished Chair in Engineering

Advisor Award

Qian Chen

2020 Dean’s Award for Excellence in

André Schleife

Promoted to Associate Professor

Research

Daniel Shoemaker

Promoted to Associate Professor;

Chris Evans

2020 3M Non-tenured Faculty Award

2020 Engineering Council Outstanding

Nate Gabrielson

Promoted to Senior Lecturer

Advisor Award

Axel Hoffmann

2019 Highly Cited Researcher

Nancy Sottos

Elected to National Academy of Engineering;

Pinshane Huang

Presidential Early Career Award in Science

Professor, Center for Advanced Study

& Engineering (PECASE), 2019

Dallas Trinkle

2019 TMS Brimacombe Medal

matse.illinois.edu | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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Materials Science & Engineering 201 Materials Science Building 1304 West Green Street Urbana, IL 61801 MC-246

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Support student scholarships at MatSE DONATE TO THE

Engineering Visionary Scholarship Fund grainger.illinois.edu/giving/evs/give University of Illinois Foundation 1305 West Green Street Urbana, IL 61801

“I WANTED TO BECOME AN ENGINEER TO MAKE AN IMPACT IN THE WORLD AROUND ME. WHETHER IT IS CLIMATE CHANGE, ENERGY INEFFICIENCY, OR FEEDING THE MASSES, IT IS AN ENGINEER’S DUTY TO COMBAT SYSTEMIC

For more information, contact: Ethan Scott, ethans@illinois.edu

PROBLEMS.” – Noah Hanselman, Engineering Visionary Scholarship recipient

Keep in touch: MATSE.ILLINOIS.EDU

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Materials Science and Engineering | Fall 2020