Students

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.

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.

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.

Congratulations to Morris Yang for being honored by Undergraduate Education as Materials Science and Engineering’s Outstanding Senior!

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.