The Materials Advantage Student Chapter (MASC) at UC Davis is hosting a virtual block party on June 4, 2020 from 5:15 – 6 p.m. over Zoom. College of Engineering virtual block parties, named after the video display blocks on Zoom, are events for current students and alumni to build connections, share experiences and give each other hope and encouragement during this difficult time. Register here to attend.
Becoming an engineer was a natural choice for fourth-year materials science and engineering major Ian Phillips. He grew up working on cars with his dad, giving him a love of hands-on work and problem solving he’s taken with him throughout his time at UC Davis, from studying semiconductors and ceramics at UC Davis and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to teaching shop tools at the UC Davis D-Lab.
From her interest in textiles and sustainability to her advocacy for public health and social justice, fourth-year materials science and engineering major Annie Wang’s interests cross paths and drive her to make a difference at UC Davis and in the world.
Fourth-year Ph.D. student Jianheng Li received an ALS Doctoral Fellowship in Residence at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBL). Li will spend the 2019-2020 academic year at LBL’s Advanced Light Source (ALS) facility working with the state-of-the-art equipment, techniques and applications in synchrotron radiation research, and will receive $20,000 towards his research
Third-year Ph.D. student Kimiko Nakajima has been named a 2019-20 Mistletoe Research Fellow by the Mistletoe Foundation. Over the 2019-20 academic year, she will receive $10,000 towards her research and collaborate with a hardware-based startup company on science and technology problems.
Justin Mulvey is a fourth-year undergraduate student in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. In his time at UC Davis, he has been heavily involved on campus, in the MSE department and as a researcher in professor Adam Moule's research group.
The UC Davis Department of Materials Science and Engineering congratulates graduate student Christine Smudde on being named a 2019 NASA Space Technology Research Fellowship (NSTRF19) recipient.
Through her submitted proposal – “Microscopic Evaluation of Additively Manufactured Materials through Fatigue Crack Growth Analysis” – she was awarded a four-year, $80,000-per-year fellowship to support her innovative research, including stipend, tuition, fees, research materials and travel to a NASA laboratory.
The Material Advantage Student Chapter (MASC) at UC Davis hosted its annual Materials Magic Show at the 105th Picnic Day on April 13, 2019 and drew large crowds for each of its three shows in the Science Lecture Hall.
The student-run show introduces Picnic Day audiences to the world of materials science and engineering through magic. This year’s show was Incredibles-themed, as the students performed skits and experiments in costumes and told a story using materials.
Materials Science and Engineering students shared their cutting-edge research at the March 4 – 8 American Physical Society (APS) March Meeting in Boston:
Materials Science and Engineering undergraduate students Nadia Albayati and Joyce Christiansen-Salameh presented posters at the January 18 – 20 American Physical Society’s (APS) Conference for Undergraduate Women (CUWiP), whose regional event took place at UC Davis.
Eren is part of the department’s Mason Research Group, which specializes in theoretical and computational techniques to study the evolution of materials.
The UC Davis Materials Science and Engineering Department congratulates undergraduate Peifen Lyu, who has been named a Santa Clara Valley Chapter of the American Society for Materials (ASM) and the Society for the Advancement of Material and Process (SAMPE) scholarship recipient.
Lyu is one of two recipients of this year’s honor, which provides $2,000 each to selected applicants concentrating in materials science and technology and related engineering disciplines from Northern California colleges and universities.
The UC Davis Department of Materials Science and Engineering recently established several new fellowships and awards to support graduate engineering research and education. Luis Sotelo Martin, a first-year doctoral student in the department, is the first recipient of a graduate student researcher award generously funded by Jeffery and Marsha Gibeling.
Catherine Harvey, a Ph.D. student of Professor Subhash Risbud, has received a Fulbright Open Study/Research Award for her project, “Multifunctional Therapeutic Bioactive Glass Scaffolds as an Alternative for Bone Regeneration.” She will conduct her research with Professor María Vallet-Regí in the Department of Inorganic and Bioinorganic Chemistry at the Complutense University of Madrid from September 2018-19.
Max Zielsdorf is an undergraduate transfer student who works with nanoceramics in Professor Ricardo Castro’s lab. He is also an officer for the UC Davis chapter of MASC for the 2018-19 school year. The Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) sat down with him to chat about his life and undergraduate career at UC Davis.
Jonathan Thomas is a passionate undergraduate student in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE). He works with carbon fiber composites in the ACERS laboratory on campus and is an active member of the Formula SAE car team at UC Davis. The department sat down with him to chat about his life and undergraduate career.
MSE:What activities (clubs, jobs, research, internship, etc.) have you been involved in during your time at UC Davis?
Doctoral student Tucker Murrey earned his bachelor’s degree in Material Science and Engineering-Nanoscience and Molecular Engineering in fall 2014 from the University of Washington before joining UC Davis in 2015.
As a member of Professor Adam Moulé’s lab, Tucker works on two projects: characterizing the structural properties of semiconducting polymer thin films with elastic neuron scattering techniques and upscaling a novel photo-thermal patterning process for organic photovoltaic applications.
Jose Hernandez is a second-year master’s student in the Department of Materials Science and an Engineering Business Development Fellow for the Mike and Renee Child Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. He earned his bachelor of science in bio-engineering from the University of California, Merced. His research focuses on reducing the amount of greenhouse gas allowed to reach the upper atmosphere.
Designated Emphasis in Biotechnology (DEB) Program Celebrates 20 Years of Preparing Ph.D. Students like Amanda Dang
About 70 doctoral students from different departments — Integrative Genetics and Genomics, Food Science, Microbiology, Materials Science and Engineering — fill room 1022 in the UC Davis Life Sciences building for course MCB 294, “Current Progress in Biotechnology.”
Arseniy Bokov is an international doctoral student researching the design of nanocrystalline ceramic materials. Specifically, he is looking at how to improve their mechanical properties.
Christine Smudde is a Materials Science and Engineering graduate student at UC Davis. She conducts research in a material characterization lab with Professor Jeff Gibeling, where she analyzes fatigue, fracture and creep behavior in materials. She hopes to eventually collaborate with companies to find and supply materials to the growing materials industry.
Julie Soderlind – a graduate student in Material Science and Engineering with Professor Subhash Risbud’s research group – was selected among a highly competitive pool of applicants as the inaugural recipient of the UC-National Lab In-Residence Graduate Fellowship. Julie will have the unique opportunity to conduct research and receive training on additive manufacturing in Yong Han’s group at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Her Ph.D. project is on Magnesium Alloy Scaffolds for Biomedical Implant Applications.
Congratulations to materials science and engineering graduate student, Alex Kane, and chemical engineering graduate student, Jennifer Nill, who were both selected to receive the U.S. Department of Energy‘s Science Graduate Student Research Award. Alex and Jennifer are among 52 SCGSR recipients who will conduct part of their doctoral dissertation research in one the DOE’s 12 national laboratories.
During this year’s annual UC Davis open house (Picnic Day 2017), MSE students from the Materials Advantage Student Chapter, organized and created a spectacular show on how awesome Materials Science & Engineering is and to inspire a new generation. The students presented a theatrical show where superheroes, such as Spiderman, Wonder Woman, and even the Green Lantern, required Materials Engineering to recover their superpowers.
