Drs. Steven May, Mitra Taheri, and James RondinelliThree young faculty in Drexel University's Department of Materials Science and Engineering have received a total of six early career awards this spring.
Hoeganaes Assistant Professor Mitra Taheri and Assistant Professor Steven May have both received a five-year National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development grant (NSF-CAREER). With "The Role of Grain Boundary Character in Corrosion Behavior: Linking Atomic Scale Interfacial Structure to Precipitation and Failure Mechanisms," Dr. Taheri will use the award to develop an understanding of the atomic scale grain boundary structure dependence of corrosion enhancing precipitation in FCC metals. Dr. May's award, "Octahedral Control of Electronic Properties in Semiconducting Perovskite Heterostructures," deals with complex oxide thin films.
Additionally, Prof. Taheri has been awarded a Department of Energy Early Career Research Program grant. "Linking the Correlated Dependence of Grain Boundary Structure and Density to Defect Evolution Mechanisms during Radiation Damage" looks at the mutual dependence of damage accumulation on atomic scale grain boundary structure and density during irradiation.
Assistant Professor James Rondinelli and Prof. May have also each received a three-year Young Investigator Award from the Physics Division of the Army Research Office Young Investigator Program (YIP). Dr. Rondinelli will investigate the "Ab initio design of noncentrosymmetric metals: crystal engineering in oxide heterostructures." This research project focuses on identifying routes to combine two disparate, yet technologically important, properties into complex oxide materials: high electrical conductivity and optical activity, e.g. birefringence. Dr. May will conduct research on "Symmetry mismatched heterostructures: New routes to bandwidth control in oxides," to explore the specific role that crystal symmetry plays in determining the electronic, optical, and magnetic properties of complex oxides.
Prof. Rondinelli is also the recipient of a DARPA Young Faculty Award (YFA). "Seizing the third dimension in correlated oxide thin films" seeks to identify routes by which to control the atomic structure in thin films of functional electronic materials.