Category: News

Stacy Copp Receives U.S. Department of EnergyEarly-Career Recognition On September 10, 2024, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced the selection of 91 early-career scientists from across the country who will receive a combined $138 million in funding for research covering a wide range of topics. We are delighted to share that MRSEC’s Stacy Copp is among this…Continue Reading Stacy Copp Receives U.S. Department of Energy Early-Career Recognition

Prestigious NSF PREM Grant Awarded On August 29, 2024, Cal State LA and UC Irvine’s Samueli School of Engineering received a $1 million PREM grant from the NSF to enhance research and education in materials science. This three-year grant will fund the establishment of the NSF PREM Center for Bioinspired and Architectured Materials (CBAM) at…Continue Reading Prestigious NSF PREM Grant Awarded

Education Outreach The Center for Complex and Active Materials (CCAM) actively collaborates with local communities and school districts to foster an interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers. We develop and deploy educational modules for K-12 students, showcasing scientific and technological breakthroughs relevant to our research. Our education and outreach initiatives, namely Future…Continue Reading Education Outreach

Impact of Entropy Stabilization on Electrical Conductivity Entropy-stabilized oxide (ESO) research has primarily focused on discovering unprecedented structures, chemistries, and properties in the single-phase state. However, few studies discuss the impacts of entropy stabilization and secondary phases on functionality and in particular, electrical conductivity.  The IRG 1 collaborative work between Bowman (Hasti Vahidi), Schoenung (Justin Cortez and Alex Dupuy)…Continue Reading Impact of Entropy Stabilization on Electrical Conductivity

Teaching 6th Graders about Materials Science The Center for Complex and Active Materials (CCAM) partnered with the Office of Access and Inclusion to host an Engineering Open House for the 6th grade class at Alliance Middle School. We hosted 100 middle school students and their teachers on campus tours of advanced characterization at the Irvine Materials…Continue Reading Teaching 6th Graders about Materials Science

Observing the Dynamics of an Electrochemically Driven Active Material with Liquid Electron Microscopy The IRG-2 team led by Assistant Professor Joe Patterson (Department of Chemistry) and his student Wyeth Gibson, have pioneered the observation of molecular active materials using liquid electron microscopy. This technique, primarily applied to inorganic materials, is now being used to explore the self-assembly dynamics…Continue Reading Observing the Dynamics of an Electrochemically Driven Active Material with Liquid Electron Microscopys

Exceptional Electronic Transport & Quantum Oscillations in Thin Bismuth Crystals Grown Inside vdW Materials The seed team, led by Assistant Professor Javier D. Sanchez-Yamagishi, has developed an innovative approach to thin crystal synthesis by growing bismuth within a nanoscale mold composed of van der Waals (vdW) materials. This atomically-flat vdW mold templates the bismuth crystals, resulting…Continue Reading Exceptional Electronic Transport & Quantum Oscillations in Thin Bismuth Crystals Grown Inside vdW Materials

Sensitive Thermochromic Behavior of InSeI Optical thermometry measures temperature using the optical properties of materials, such as luminescence, absorbance, or fluorescence. In a study published in Advanced Materials, the seed team led by Assistant Prof. Maxx Q. Arguilla of Chemistry, along with co-workers Dmitri Leo Mesoza Cordova, Yinong Zhou, Griffin M. Milligan, Leo Cheng, Tyler Kerr, Joseph Ziller, and Prof. Ruqian Wu,…Continue Reading Sensitive Thermochromic Behavior of InSeI

Neural Network Kinetics Method Predicts Atomic Diffusion in Complex Materials IRG-1 researchers, Assistant Professor Penghui Cao of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and his student Bin Xing, have developed a groundbreaking Neural Network Kinetics (NNK) method to model and predict atomic diffusion in compositionally complex materials. This innovative framework leverages artificial neural networks to simulate the chemical and structural…Continue Reading Neural Network Kinetics Method Predicts Atomic Diffusion in Complex Materials

CCAM Graduate Student Received 2024 Microscopy & Microanalysis Student Scholar Award Huiming Guo, IRG-1 graduate student researcher in Prof. Will Bowman’s group, was recently awarded a 2024 Microscopy & Microanalysis (M&M) Student Scholar Award, for her paper entitled: “Atomic Structure and Chemistry of High-Entropy Oxide Grain Boundaries revealed by STEM Imaging, Strain Mapping, and Spectroscopy”. …Continue Reading CCAM Graduate Student Received 2024 Microscopy & Microanalysis Student Scholar Award