Woolley Research Group: Nanomaterials and 3D printed materials. Current research involves folding DNA into controlled nanoscale designs that can be converted into functional electronic systems after metallization; and 3D printing of integrated microfluidic devices for biomarker analysis.
Watt Research Lab Group: Biological systems require trace amounts of transition metal ions to sustain life. Transition metal ions are required at the active sites of many enzymes for catalytic activity. In fact, transition metals catalyze some of the most energetically demanding reactions in biology. Unfortunately, these highly reactive metal ions also catalyze reactions that are dangerous for biological systems, especially if the metal ion is free in solution. For this purpose biology has evolved elaborate transition metal ion handling systems to bind and sequester transition metal ions in non-reactive environments to prevent these dangerous reactions from occurring. The Watt lab focuses on how iron is properly moved throughout the body.
The Paxton lab is designing stimuli-responsive composite materials that self-assemble into dynamic nanostructures that mimic lipid bilayer membranes. We want to used these materials to control the chemical and electronic properties at liquid-solid interfaces and mimic the properties and functions of biological membranes. We aim to use what we learn to develop novel biomimetic sensors and smart drug-delivery vehicles.
TEMP Lab: Research is focused on measuring and understanding the thermal behavior of materials, across a wide range of applications. Current research includes: 3D printed microfluidics to for DNA, protein, and other biomolecule studies; heat transfer within solid state friction processes, such as friction stir welding; measurements of molten salt thermal properties for use in nuclear reactors, solar energy, and thermal energy storage; microscopic thermal property measurements for nuclear and ceramic materials; high speed thermal property imaging; capture-gated neutron detector through the creation of heterogeneous plastic scintillators for detecting illicit nuclear materials.
The Coherent Diffraction Imaging Lab at BYU studies materials in extreme conditions (shock, strain) through nanometer x-ray imaging and scattering techniques at large x-ray facilities and with ultrafast lab based sources.
Materials Simulation Group: Developing surrogate models to accelerate first-principles-based discovery of new materials. New mathematical representations for machine learning on computational databases of materials. Improvement and innovations in first-principles (quantum mechanical) simulations codes. Quantum-accurate interatomic potentials. Molecular dynamics, phonon calculations, nested sampling for temperature-composition phase diagrams. Machine learning for grain boundaries. High-throughput materials discovery and database building (www.aflow.org). New ternary bases for superalloys.
