Current and Alumni Student Research
Current Student Research

Nipa Khair, PhD
Picture Content: Holding a polymeric transcatheter aortic valve enhanced with hyaluronan. Nipa works with Dr. Sue James on a device that could replace diseased aortic valves in the human heart..

Rashedul Islam, PhD
Picture Content: Thin ply high strain composite materials (HSC) are of great interest in deployable space structure. Engineers and scientists need more engineering approaches to predict the behavior of the HSC materials in the extreme space-environment although the constituent materials of HSC are aerospace-grade high-performance resin. My research concerns the characterization of the viscoelastic behavior of HSC materials from neat resin to laminae and laminate level to better understand viscoelastic behavior and design the efficient deployable space structure.

Otoniel Duran, PhD
Otoniel’s (Oto) research aims to improve the formulation of calcium phosphate slurry to achieve the desired viscosity for 3D printing. Here, Oto is holding a 3D printed sample of TPMS (triply periodic minimal surface) calcium phosphate scaffold for bone regeneration.

Emma Rettner, PhD
Emma is holding a recent polymer she created- hard block made from cyclopentene, a cheap cycloolefin. You can read more about her work here.

Rafael Almaraz, PhD
Rafael (Rafa) works with Dr. Justin Sambur’s lab. In his research, Rafa transfers semiconductors from the water scale into electrochemical cells to measure their efficiency at transforming light into energy. Here, Rafa is cleaning and preparing to use instrumentation.

Dominic Asebiah, PhD
Dominic works on new material discovery for semiconductor applications. He specifically works with perovskite materials.

Boston Morris, PhD
Boston works with block copolymer materials to create thermoplastic elastomers. You can read more about his research here.

Carter Stotts, PhD
Carter’s research focus is on diffusion, phase transformations, and fracture of ultra-high temperature ceramics and composites with the intention of developing novel metal-ceramic multilayer composites for use as structured materials in extreme environments. To accomplish this, Carter uses a theoretical and computational approach including a combination of finite element, Monte Carlo, and ab-initio (VASP) simulations.
Alumni Research

Nelson Isaacson, MS Grad, 2021
Picture Content: SEM image of a fractured Hydroxyapatite scaffold. My research revolves around investigating the failure mechanisms of 3D-printed scaffolds for use in bone regeneration. This is an example scaffold that was fractured under compression loading, and the internal rod fracture surface is being investigated to determine how to better strengthen the material and the scaffold

Alex Sutherland, MS Grad, 2021
Picture Content: This photo is of ball-milled stainless steel scrap that will be sintered using spark plasma sintering. I am currently working on recycling stainless steel and titanium scrap using a more energy-efficient process while also maintaining or even improving some of its mechanical properties.

Roberta Maia Sabino, PhD Grad, 2021
Picture Content: Superhydrophobic titania nanotube with droplets of water, blood plasma, and whole blood. As you can see, the droplets do not spread on the nanotube’s surface, which shows its superhydrophobicity (surface repels water/blood). This material is for blood-contacting medical devices that prevents blood from clotting.

Alex Preston, PhD Grad, 2022
Picture Content: This picture is of stainless steel powder being sintered at heating rates within a graphite die. My research focuses on controlling the microstructure of materials and how these structures, such as porosity and grain size on the nano and micro scale, influence bulk mechanical properties.

Brody DeBoer, MS Grad, 2021
Picture Content: I am currently working on the diffusion of cations into Mayenite electride. This diffusion study will lead into the doping of Mayenite electride to increase its material properties.