Yayoi Takamura named MSE department chair
Professor Yayoi Takamura is the new chair of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering Department, effective July 1. A long-time leader in the department, Takamura joined UC Davis in 2006 and had been vice chair of the MSE department since 2017. She also served on the Dean’s faculty advisory committee from 2016-17 and was chair of the College of Engineering graduate study committee from 2018-20. She plans to bring her experience with her to her new role.
“As chair, I hope to continue building a vibrant department with a strong international reputation for excellence in research and teaching by attracting dynamic new faculty and developing existing faculty into influential and productive leaders, as well as ensuring that they have the infrastructure to perform state-of-the-art research,” she said.
Takamura is a prolific collaborator, working on projects with experts across the UC System and around the world and taking her research to national laboratories across the country. This has not only grown her reputation as a researcher and mentor, but also given her students great opportunities to gain exposure to the international research community. Her research focuses on the magnetic and electronic properties at interfaces of complex oxide thin films and heterostructures.
She received an NSF CAREER Award in 2008 and the DARPA Young Faculty Award in 2011 for her work and was recently recognized by the UC Davis College of Engineering with an Outstanding Mid-Career Research Award.
As an instructor, she has taught a wide range of classes, from “Properties of Materials” (ENG 45) for second-year undergraduates to “Advanced Functional Properties of Materials” (EMS 272) for graduate students.
Takamura received her B.S. degree from Cornell University and her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Stanford University, all in materials science and engineering. She joined UC Davis in 2006 after working as a postdoctoral scholar at UC Berkeley.
Takamura succeeds Professor Jeff Gibeling, who will be returning to teaching and research this winter.