Skip to main content

People

Below is a list of individuals who do materials related research, along with their respective departments and research interests.

Department Faculty Research Interests
Chemical Engineering
Devin Rappleye

Electrochemistry, Nuclear, Metallurgy
Chemical Engineering Matthew Memmott Nuclear energy
Chemical Engineering William Pitt Polymetric Biomaterials and Drug Deliveries
Chemical Engineering Doug Tree Theory and simulation of polymers, colloids, and other soft materials.
Chemical Engineering
Dongjin Seo Colloidal and Interface Science
Chemistry Roger Harrison Harrison Lab Group: Research in our group comes under one of three main areas: molecular recognition, separations by ion chromatography and nanomaterials. Frontiers in chemical research are at the interface of what used to be separate disciplines. The areas of inorganic chemistry, bioinorganic chemistry, and materials can be applied to separations, molecular sensors, catalysts, and nanomaterials. Our group does research in areas that span multiple fields of chemistry.
Chemistry James Patterson The Patterson Research Lab: The goal of our research is to establish links between molecular structure and function in interfacial systems. To accomplish this, we use a non-linear spectroscopy technique known as vibrationally resonant sum-frequency generation (VR-SFG). This technique allows us to probe molecules at interfaces without interfering signal from molecules in the bulk. It also allows us to determine the orientation of molecules at these interfaces. We are currently studying two types of systems: solid-solid interfaces relevant to adhesion and solid-liquid interfaces relevant to chromatography.
Chemistry Adam Woolley 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.
Chemistry Richard Watt 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.
Chemistry David Michaelis Michaelis Research Group: The Michaelis laboratory is interested in new strategies in catalyst development that provide solutions to some of the most challenging limitations of current organic synthesis. Specifically, we develop heterobimetallic catalysts where formation of a metal–metal interaction is critical to catalyst performance. We also develop polymer-supported nanoparticle catalysts where the polymer support acts as a tunable "ligand" to tune catalytic activity and selectivity. We are also working to develop polypeptide-based multifunctional catalysts that mimic enzyme catalysts.
Chemistry Kara Stowers Stowers Lab Research: The Stowers laboratory takes an interdisciplinary approach towards research of carbon dioxide activation and reactivity through principles of inorganic, physical and organic chemistry. Our interest is in developing new catalysts that will decrease the energy and waste required to synthesize commodity chemicals through new pathways.
Chemistry Brian Woodfield Woodfield Lab Group: The current research focus also includes the synthesis and characterization of a wide variety of alumina and titania catalyst supports and Fischer-Tropsch catalysts
Chemistry Matt Linford Linford Research Group: Most of our work is focused on surface modification and patterning of materials like silicon, polymers, and diamond. To do these surface modifications my students learn and perform bioconjugate chemistry, as well as organic and polymer chemistry.
Chemistry Jeremy Johnson Johnson Spectroscopy: We use ultrafast spectroscopy with expertise in high-field Terahertz (THz) generation to study characterize and control material properties on trillionth-of-a-second time scales.
Chemistry Stacey Smith XRD Research: The X-ray Diffraction (XRD) facility at BYU currently operates two XRD instruments. One instrument is optimized for analyzing polycrystalline samples (P-XRD), and the other is optimized for analyzing single crystal samples (SC-XRD). The XRD facility supports both research and teaching in the department and the university.
Chemistry Wally Paxton 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.
Electrical Engineering Greg Nordin -
Electrical Engineering Aaron Hawkins Hawkins Research Group: See link for more information.
Electrical Engineering Brian Mazzeo Electromagnetic Measurement Group: See website for all research projects offered.
Mechanical Engineering Nathan Crane CREATE Lab: The Create Lab advances manufacturing processes to build a better future. Most current work is focused on additive manufacturing.
Mechanical Engineering David Fullwood -
Mechanical Engineering Eric Homer Microstructure Research: Structure-property relationships and microstructure evolution in polycrystalline metals; atomistic and mesoscale simulation techniques
Mechanical Engineering Oliver Johnson The Johnson Group studies grain boundaries and grain boundary networks in materials. We investigate the influence of microstructural anisotropy, heterogeneity and topology on the properties of materials. We use theory, computation, and experiments to exploit these attributes of microstructures in an effort to characterize, design and synthesize materials with enhanced and/or tailored performance and to gain new insights into the relationships between the structure of materials and their properties.
Mechanical Engineering Troy Munro 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.
Manufacturing Engineering Technology Tracy Nelson Friction Stir Research Lab: See link for more information.
Manufacturing Engineering Technology Michael Miles -
Manufacturing Engineering Technology Andy George -
Physics and Astronomy Richard Sandberg 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.
Physics John Colton Colton Research Lab: Optical properties of semiconductors, including using optics to study electronic spin. Current materials being studied include semiconductor nanoparticles made inside the protein ferritin (with Richard Watt), platinum nanoparticles (with Richard Watt), p-type ZnO thin films (with David Allred), and nanoparticles as temperature sensors (with Troy Munro).
Physics David Allred Current Research: See website link for links to all current research projects (SOP for Uranium and Thorium thin film deposition, Optical Properties of Materials, Mars Exploration Simulation/Development).
Physics Brian Anderson Acoustics Research: Experimental acoustics/ultrasonics to detect, locate, and characterize damage in materials. Research includes Resonant Ultrasound Spectroscopy (RUS) to extract the stiffness tensor from dynamic excitation, Nonlinear RUS (NRUS) to detect microcracking, and time reversal acoustics to focus elastic energy for crack localization and characterization.
Physics Gus Hart 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.
Physics Branton Campbell Branton Campbell Research: I apply state-of-the-art x-ray and neutron scattering techniques to study local and long-range structures in a variety of complex solids, including fast-ion conductors, ferroelectric relaxors, high-temperature superconductors, and colossal magnetoresistive manganites, where nanoscale structural features influence macroscopic physical properties.
Physics Karine Chesnel Nano-Magnetism: We investigate the magnetic behavior of nanosystems, such as magnetic nanoparticles and very thin magnetic films.
Physics Robert Davis BYU Applied Nanomaterials: We focus on nanoscale science, with an emphasis on carbon nanotubes and their respective uses.
Physics Benjamin Frandsen We investigate the structure and magnetism of materials with fascinating and often promising properties, such as superconductors, strongly correlated electron systems, multiferroics, magnetocalorics, molten salts for nuclear reactors, and more. We use beams of neutrons, x-rays, and muons produced at large-scale accelerator facilities to probe the atomic and magnetic correlations in these materials, together with advanced computational modeling to gain quantitative insight into the spatial arrangement of atoms and spins in a given material. Specific techniques include atomic and magnetic pair distribution function (PDF) analysis of neutron/x-ray total scattering data and muon spin relaxation/rotation (μSR).
Physics Richard Sandberg
Physics Mark Transtrum
Physics Richard Vanfleet Vanfleet Research: We attempt to determine in as direct observational way as possible the way materials actually chose to arrange themselves. This is often in contrast to how man has attempted to arrange them. We are interested in the structural arrangement of atoms as well as the elemental and bonding arrangements of atoms within nanometer scale features of the sample.