Alumnus Michael Naguib (PhD 2014, advisors: Michel Barsoum and Yury Gogotsi) will be joining Tulane University in January 2018 as assistant professor in the department of Physics and Engineering Physics. The department offers an undergraduate certificate in Materials Engineering and PhD in Materials Engineering.
Currently Michael is a Wigner Fellow at the Oak Ridge National Lab where he works to understand the effect of surface termination and electronic structure on the electrochemical properties of two-dimensional transition metal based materials including MXenes, and oxides. This understanding will help identify a design approach to enhance the performance of lithium-ion battery electrodes. Michael is strongly involved in the FIRST Energy Frontier Research Center, which is primarily located within Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and includes researchers at Argonne National Laboratory and seven partner universities including Drexel.
During his doctoral studies, Michael single-handedly discovered a large family of MXenes that have promising energy storage applications, including in ion batteries and supercapacitors, and was awarded Drexel’s Outstanding Promise Doctoral Award, conferred upon graduating doctoral students who are deemed to exhibit great promise in enhancing Drexel’s reputation in the future. In 2016, Michael was selected as one of Drexel’s 40 under 40, recognizing 40 alumni under the age of 40 who are breaking new ground and excelling in their fields.