The Institute of Materials Science & Engineering (IMSE) at Washington University in St. Louis offers a unique, interdisciplinary PhD in Materials Science & Engineering that crosses traditional departmental and school boundaries. The field of materials science and engineering focuses on the study, development and application of new materials with desirable properties, with the goal of enabling new products and superior performance regimes. Disciplines in the physical sciences (e.g., chemistry, physics) play a central role in developing the fundamental knowledge that is needed to design materials for a variety of engineering applications (e.g., mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, biomedical engineering). Building on training that spans from fundamental to applied sciences, materials scientists and engineers integrate this fundamental knowledge to develop new materials and match them with appropriate technological needs.

The IMSE is well positioned to address the needs of a student seeking a truly interdisciplinary experience. The IMSE brings together a diverse group of faculty from departments in Arts & Sciences, the McKelvey School of Engineering, and the School of Medicine. The IMSE also oversees shared research and instrument facilities, develops partnerships with industry and national laboratories, and facilitates outreach activities.

Current focused areas of research and advanced graduate education within the IMSE include the following:

• Artificial intelligence in materials discovery and design
• Biomedical, bio-derived, and bio-inspired materials
• Materials for energy and environmental technologies
• Quantum and photonic materials and devices

Contact Info

Director

Professor Flores' primary research interest is the mechanical behavior of high-performance structural materials, with particular emphasis on understanding structure-processing-property relationships in bulk metallic glasses and their composites.

Professors

Professor Guan’s research interests are in biomimetic biomaterials synthesis and scaffold fabrication; bioinspired modification of biomaterials; injectable and highly flexible hydrogels; bioimageable polymers for MRI and EPR imaging and oxygen sensing; mathematical modeling of scaffold structural and mechanical properties; stem cell differentiation; neural stem cell transplantation for brain tissue regeneration; and bone and cardiovascular tissue engineering.

Professor Kelton is involved in the study and production of titanium-based quasicrystals and related phases; fundamental investigations of time-dependent nucleation processes; modeling of oxygen precipitation in single crystal silicon; structure of amorphous materials; relation between structure and nucleation barrier; and hydrogen storage in quasicrystals.

Vijay Ramani's research interests lie at the confluence of electrochemical engineering, materials science and renewable and sustainable energy technologies. The National Science Foundation, Office of Naval Research, ARPA-E, and Department of Energy have funded his research, with mechanisms including an NSF CAREER award (2009) and an ONR Young Investigator Award (ONR-YIP; 2010).

Professor Singamaneni’s research interests include plasmonic engineering in nanomedicine (in vitro biosensing for point-of-care diagnostics, molecular bioimaging, nanotherapeutics); photovoltaics (plasmonically enhanced photovoltaic devices); surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS)-based chemical sensors, with particular emphasis on the design and fabrication of unconventional and highly efficient SERS substrates; hierarchical organic/inorganic nanohybrids as multifunctional materials; bioinspired structural and functional materials; polymer surfaces and interfaces; responsive and adaptive materials and scanning probe microscopy; and surface force spectroscopy of soft and biological materials.

Professor Zhang’s research focuses on developing synthetic biology tools and systems for the sustainable production of structurally defined chemicals and high-performance materials. Current research projects include the following: (1) engineering microbial metabolic dynamics and heterogeneity; (2) engineering metabolic pathways to produce structure-defined biofuels and chemicals; and (3) developing microbial factories to produce high-performance materials.

Associate Professors

Professor Bai's research focuses on the development of next-generation batteries. Knowledge and tools developed in the Bai Group also apply to and benefit the design of other electrochemical energy systems, like supercapacitors and fuel cells.

Dr. Berezin’s lab focuses on the development of novel optically active probes ranging from small molecules to nanoparticles and the development of optical instrumentation for spectroscopy and imaging using knowledge of excited states. The lab's research interest lies in the investigation and application of molecular excited states and their reactions for medical imaging and clinical treatment.

Professor Foston’s research program seeks to develop innovative and novel routes to exploit and utilize lignocellulosic biomass by taking advantage of materials involved in industries such as agriculture, papermaking, and forestry products.

Professor Henriksen's lab research is centered on the properties of electrons confined to two dimensions. This remarkable system has yielded a tremendous amount of interesting and important physics over the past several decades, from the integer and fractional quantum Hall effects to the groundbreaking discoveries of graphene and other atomically thin crystals and especially to the recent realization of the topological nature of the electronic structure of a surprising number of materials both novel and familiar.

Professor Hu’s research focuses on the development of cutting-edge optical and photoacoustic technologies for high-resolution structural, functional, metabolic and molecular imaging in vivo and their applications in neurovascular disorders, cardiovascular diseases, regenerative medicine, and cancer.

Professor Lew and his students build advanced imaging systems to study biological and chemical systems at the nanoscale, leveraging innovations in applied optics, signal and image processing, design optimization, and physical chemistry. Their advanced nanoscopes (microscopes with nanometer resolution) visualize the activity of individual molecular machines inside and outside living cells. Examples of new technologies developed in the Lew Lab include (1) using tiny fluorescent molecules as sensors that can detect amyloid proteins; (2) designing new "lenses" to create imaging systems that can visualize how molecules move and tumble; and (3) new imaging software that minimizes artifacts in super-resolution images.

Professor Li’s research interests are in batteries and fuel cells, including direct methanol fuel cells, lithium-oxygen batteries and battery thermal management;  transport phenomena in porous media; greenhouse gas emissions and full fuel cycle analysis of fossil fuels; and life cycle assessment and economic analysis of advanced energy techniques, among others.

Professor Meacham’s research interests include microfluidics, micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) and associated transport phenomena, with application to design, development and testing of novel energy systems and life sciences tools, from scalable micro-/nanotechnologies for improved heat and mass exchangers to MEMS-based tools for manipulation and investigation of cellular processes. He is also interested in the behavior of jets and/or droplets of complex fluids during ejection from microscopic orifices, which is critical to applications as disparate as biological sample preparation and additive manufacturing.

Professor Mishra’s research interest is to develop quantitative structure-property correlations in materials starting from the atomic scale. To develop such correlations, his group synergistically combines electronic structure calculations with atomic-resolution electron microscope imaging and spectroscopy. The end goal is the rational design of materials with properties tailored for electronic, optical, magnetic and energy applications. Current research topics include perovskite materials for photovoltaic and optoelectronic applications, novel electrocatalysts, oxidizers, and wide-bandgap semiconductors.

Professor Oyen has a background in materials and biomechanics and has worked on many problems within tissue mechanics and biomimetic materials. For over twenty years, she has had an increasing interest in pregnancy and women's health research, particularly in engineering approaches for prevention of and intervention into preterm birth.

Jai Rudra's lab is interested in the development of nanoscale biomaterials such as nanofibers, nanoparticles, virus-like particles, and hydrogels for engaging the immune system to induce protective antibody and cell-mediated immune responses against diseases such as tuberculosis, melanoma, and flavivirus infections (i.e., West Nile and Zika). He is also investigating the development of vaccines against drugs of addiction such as cocaine.

Professor Thimsen’s research focus is on the synthesis of nanostructured materials and molecular chemicals using non-equilibrium plasma and aerosol approaches.

Professor Wang's research focus is on two-dimensional semiconductor nanoelectronics and optoelectronics, stretchable electronics, printed electronics, and sensors and actuators.

Assistant Professors

Professor Bae's research group focuses on tackling the challenges in materials science with thermodynamics, kinetics, and solid-state physics.

Professor Huebsch's research focus is in basic and translational stem cell mechanobiology, with specific focus on hydrogels to control cell-mediated tissue repair and three-dimensional, iPSC-based heart-in-a-dish models to study the influence of mechanical loading and genetics on arrhythmia and contractility.

Professor Lawrence and his lab are harnessing breakthroughs in nanoscale engineering to push the limits of light-based technologies, targeting applications ranging from all-optical computing and quantum communication to metrology and biosensing.

Professor Ran’s research aims to realize and understand exotic states of quantum materials using combined techniques of bulk crystal synthesis, electric and thermal transport measurements under extreme temperature, pressure and magnetic field conditions, and neutron and high-energy X-ray scattering.

Professor Weisensee’s work focuses on understanding the interplay of fluid dynamics, heat transfer, and liquid-solid interactions of droplets and other multi-phase systems. Practical applications of interest are phase change heat transfer for thermal management, thermal storage, water harvesting, metallic additive manufacturing, and droplet interactions with biological and natural systems.

Professor Zu's research interests lie at the interface between atomic, molecular, and optical physics; condensed matter physics; and quantum information.