Center for Multiscale Modeling for Engineering Materials (CM²EM)

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Amit Acharya Professor - Civil and Environmental Engineering; Materials Science Engineering Crystal dislocation mechanics and plasticity from the atomic to macroscopic scales; averaging of nonlinear, time-dependent material behavior for engineering applications; computational solid mechanics; general continuum mechanics. acharyaamit@cmu.edu | 412-268-4566 | 101 PH

Nadine Aubry Professor and Head - Mechanical Engineering Professor Aubry's research is in the area of fluid dynamics. She pioneered the modeling of open flow turbulence and other complex flows and systems using advanced decomposition tools and dynamical systems theory. Her current group's research focuses on microscale flows or microfluidics, including micromixers, droplet generators, and manipulators of particles suspended in liquids. aubry@andrew.cmu.edu | 412-268-2501 | 401 SH

Katayun Barmak Professor - Materials Science and Engineering Katayun Barmark is a Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) at Carnegie Mellon University. Professor Barmark completed her M.S. in Metallurgy and Ph.D. in Materials Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1985 and 1989 respectively. Professor Barmark joined the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University in 1999 and was promoted to the rank of Full Professor in 2002. Professor Barmak's research interests include processing, properties, crystal structure, grain structure, and texture of polycrystalline metal films for application in integrated circuits and magnetic recording media and MEMS; thermodynamics and kinetics of reactions and phase transformations in nanostructuctured films; experimental, analytical and simulational studies of transformations and associated microstructures in thin films; and properties of grain boundaries. katayun@andrew.cmu.edu | 412-268-4380 | 143 REH

Jacobo Bielak Professor - Civil & Environmental Engineering Computational science and engineering with emphasis on engineering seismology and earthquake engineering. jbielak@cmu.edu | 412-268-2958 | 123H BP

Kaushik Dayal Assistant Professor - Civil & Environmental Engineering Mechanics of microstructure in materials, dynamics of active materials and phase transformations, ferroelectrics-based optical and electronic microstructured devices, molecular models of solids, mechanics of biological viruses and nanostructures. kaushik@cmu.edu | 412-268-2949 | 118J PH

Maarten De Boer Associate Professor - Mechanical Engineering Maarten P. de Boer is interested in thin film materials as related to their physical properties and to their applications. He has used MEMS devices as a vehicle for measuring the mechanical and surface properties of thin films and also for making nanoscale measurements. Researchers in de Boer's group are interested in mechanics, materials science, fabrication, testing and modeling of small-scale devices and properties. mpdebo@andrew.cmu.edu | 412-268-2870 | 325 SH

Marc De Graef Associate Professor - Materials Science & Engineering Professor De Graef's research interests lie in the area of microstructural characterization of structural intermetallics and magnetic materials. His current focus is on the development of experimental and modeling techniques for the quantitative study of magnetic domain configurations in a variety of materials, including ferromagnetic shape memory alloys, magnetic thin films, and patterned structures. degraef@cmu.edu | 412-268-8527 | 130 REH

Gary Fedder Director - ICES; Director - CIMM; Howard M. Wilkoff Professor - Electrical and Computer Engineering and Robotics Professor Fedder's research centers on the design and behavioral modeling of microsensors and microactuators and on the fabrication of integrated MEMS with electronic circuits using post-CMOS processing. This approach makes it possible to build complex systems-on-chip for multiple applications including accelerometers, gyroscopes, mirror scanners, probe nanomanipulators, chemical sensor arrays, embedded stress sensors, radio-frequency resonant mixer filters and tunable capacitors. fedder@cmu.edu | 412-268-8443/5352 | 1201 HBH

C. Fred Higgs Assistant Professor - Mechanical Engineering C. Fred Higgs is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. He received is Ph.D in mechanical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and then completed a post-doctorate at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Professor Higgs conducts particulate flow modeling and experimental research that utilizes the basic principles of tribology, fluid and rheological mechanics. His Particulate Flow & Tribology Laboratory studies three different particulate-based tribosystems from the nano- to macro-scale. Currently, his research projects span the nanotechnology, MEMS, nanomanufacturing, biotechnology, and fossil-fuel energy arenas. In the field known as Tribology- the study of friction, lubrication, and wear- particulate flows have each been studied for their ability to act as lubricants between mating surfaces, or as wear-agents, as is the case with slurries in integrated circuit (IC) and data storage manufacturing. Professor Higgs holds a courtesy appointment in the Electrical & Computer Engineering (ECE) department. higgs@cmu.edu | 412-268-2486 | 309 SH

Mohammad Islam Assistant Professor - Chemical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering Mohammad Islam is an Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering and Physics. The Islam group employs both soft- and nanomaterials approaches to engineer multifunctional materials with tailored optical, electrical, thermal and mechanical properties. These unique materials have diverse applications in areas such as photonics, fuel cells, supercapacitors, drug delivery vessels, scaffolds for tissue engineering, etc. Due to the interdisciplinary nature of the research, the Islam group collaborates closely with researchers from other fields including physics, chemistry and biomedical engineering. Professor Islam obtained a Ph.D from Lehigh University and then did his postdoctoral research at the University of Pennsylvania. mohammad@andrew.cmu.edu | 412-268-8999 | 4315 WEH

John Kitchin Assistant Professor - Chemical Engineering jkitchin@cmu.edu | 412-268-7803 | 2208C DH

Philip R. LeDuc Associate Professor - Mechanical Engineering Philip R. LeDuc is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University with courtesy appointments in Biomedical Engineering and Biological Sciences. Professor LeDuc received his Ph.D. from John Hopkins university and post-doctorate from Children's Hospital / Harvard Medical School. Professor LeDuc's research focuses on linking mechanics to biochemistry through exploring the science of molecular to cellular biomechanics through nano- and micro-technology, control theory approaches, and computational biology. Professor LeDuc investigates the link between mechanics and biochemistry with respect to structural regulation in living cells. Specifically, he is interested in the question of how cells sense and respond to mechanical signals and convert them into biochemical processes. His most recent work as been featured in Nature and can viewed through following link: (http://www.nature.com/nnano/journal/v2/n1/index.html#cy). prleduc@cmu.edu | 412-268-2504 | 415 SH

Xin Li Research Scientist - Electrical and Computer Engineering Dr. Li's research focuses on developing novel modeling, analysis and optimization algorithms to facilitate the bold move from deterministic circuit design to statistical and probabilistic design. xinli@cmu.edu | 412-268-6507 | 2139 HH

Craig Maloney Assistant Professor - Civil & Environmental Engineering Microstructural mechanics of solids: non-linear elasticity, plasticity, fracture; discrete methods for mechanical modeling, statistical mechanics. craigmaloney@cmu.edu | 412-268-2940 | 103 PH

Alan McGaughey Assistant Professor - Mechanical Engineering Professor McGaughey's research is focused on using numerical modeling techniques, notably molecular dynamics simulations, to understand the behavior of materials at the atomic level. While based in a mechanical engineering framework, the work also draws from materials science, physics, and chemistry. mcgaughey@cmu.edu | 412-268-9605 | 322 SH

Burak Ozdoganlar Assistant Professor - Mechanical Engineering Burak Ozdoganlar is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. Professor Ozdoganlar received his Ph.D from University of Michigan and did a Post-doctorate at the University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign. Before joining Carnegie Mellon University, he worked at Sandia National Laboratories, NM as a senior member of technical staff. Professor Ozdoganlar's research interest focuses on nano/micro/meso-scale manufacturing; nano and micro-scale mechanical characterization; and modeling, simulation and experimentation of MEMS/microsystems. burakoz@andrew.cmu.edu | 412-268-9890 | 303 SH

Lawrence Pileggi Professor - Electrical & Computer Engineering The economic aspects and physical realities of nanoscale IC design and manufacturing are creating more opportunities for programmable and reconfigurable circuits, but the performance advantages of application-specific circuit customization motivate the need for new design methodologies. Dr. Pileggi's research group is exploring various forms of circuit regularity and supporting design methodologies that will facilitate affordable nanoscale silicon IC implementation. This includes the creation of new regular fabrics for digital and analog circuit design that offer a continuum of trade-off opportunities from fully customizable to fully programmable circuits. pileggi@cmu.edu | 412-268-6774 | 2113 HH

Greg Rohrer W.W.Mullins Professor and Dept Head - Materials Science and Engineering The properties of surfaces and grain boundaries are influenced by their geometric and crystallographic structure, their stoichiometry, and their defect structure. Professor Rohrer’s research is aimed at the quantitative study of interfacial properties with the goal of defining structure-property relationships for interfaces. Current research in the area of polycrystalline structure has the goals of quantifying the population of different grain boundary types, measuring their properties, understanding the mechanism by which the network forms during processing, and understanding the influence that the network structure has on the macroscopic properties of the material. Current research in the area of metal oxide surfaces has the long range goal of developing composite polar oxide materials that make the photolytic production of hydrogen economically feasible. rohrer@cmu.edu | 412-268-2696 | 3325 WEH

Anthony Rollett Professor - Materials Science & Engineering Microstructure-property relationships in crystallographically textured materials Grain boundaries, their anisotropic properties and their impact on microstructural evolution Grain growth and recrystallization Computer simulation of microstructural evolution and properties of materials Statistical methods for describing and constructing microstructures in three dimensions Texture- and interface- sensitive properties, e.g. strength, fatigue resistance. rollett@andrew.cmu.edu | 412-268-3177 | 148 REH

Sridhar Seetharaman Posco Professor - Materials Science and Engineering sridhars@andrew.cmu.edu | 412-268-2675 | 4317 WEH

Robert Sekerka University Professor - Mathematical Sciences; Physics Most of my research is interdisciplinary and is concerned with theoretical problems in materials science that lead to challenging problems in physics and mathematics. Examples are the thermodynamics of stressed solids, transport phenomena, surfaces and interfaces, phase transformations, the precise definition of chemical potentials in stressed solids, the fundamental basis of the Onsager reciprocal relations in multi-component diffusion and heat flow, and the influence of anisotropic surface tension on crystal shape. sekerka@cmu.edu | 412-268-2362 | 6416 WEH

Lucio Soibelman Associate Professor - Civil & Environmental Engineering Use of information technology for economic development. Information technology support for construction management. Process integration during the development of large-scale engineering systems. Information Logistics. Artificial Intelligence, Data Mining, Knowledge Discovery, Image Reasoning, Text Mining, Machine Learning, and Multi-reasoning Mechanisms. lucio@andrew.cmu.edu | 412-268-2952 | 123C BP

Robert Suter Professor - Physics In collaboration with scientists at Sector 1 of the Advanced Photon Source, we are developing a high energy x-ray diffraction microscope (XDM) and the software necessary to reconstruct three dimensional maps of microstructure. This technique probes grain geometries and orientations deep inside of bulk materials. Being non-destructive, the technique makes it possible to watch the dynamical behavior of microstructure well away from the influence of surfaces. A wide variety of materials applications can be imagined, including fundamental studies of grain growth and the response of ensembles of grains to the application of stress. This project is part of CMU's NSF sponsored Materials Research Science and Engineering Center. suter@andrew.cmu.edu | 412-268-2740 | 6406 WEH

Robert Swendsen Professor - Physics My main area of research is solid state physics and statistical mechanics, with an emphasis on computer simulations. I have worked especially on thermodynamic phase transitions combining computer simulations with a renormalization-group analysis. swendsen@cmu.edu | 412-268-2740 | 6410 WEH

Shlomo Ta'asan Professor - Mathematical Sciences My current research interests are mainly in the area of multiscale problems where bridging across scales of representation is a major focus. For example, how do the Navier-Stokes equations, or the Elasticity/Plasticity equations emerge from atomistic/molecular levels? What are the correct variables to introduce in modeling the problem on different scales? What are the predictable features of large systems of interacting entities (atoms/molecules, cells, etc.)? We deal with microscopic models which may be deterministic or stochastic, discrete or continuous and coarse graining of these models through intermediate scales to the macroscopic level is sought. shlomo@andrew.cmu.edu | 412-268-5582 | 6219 WEH

Luc Tartar University Professor - Mathematical Sciences My research concerns the development of mathematical tools for studying the oscillating solutions of the nonlinear partial differential equations of continuum mechanics. For physical phenomena described at a microscopic level you need to understand what equations should be used at a macroscopic level, and the mathematical model used is based on different notions of weak convergence. tartar@cmu.edu | 412-268-5734 | 6212 WEH

Elias Towe Professor - Electrical & Computer Engineering Towe's group pursues research in basic optical and quantum phenomena in materials for applications in novel photonic devices that enable a new generation of information processing systems for communication, computation, and sensing. The group is also interested in understanding new pathways and fundamental mechanisms for solar energy conversion devices. Current focus is on the use of phenomena (such as three-dimensional quantum-confinement effects in nanometer-scale structures) in the study of novel devices. Examples include: quantum-dot infrared detectors and imaging sensors, electrically-pumped photonic crystal micro-cavity lasers with quantum-dot active regions, multi-spectral solar energy conversion devices, plasmonic bio-sensors, and fluorescence bio-sensing devices. towe@cmu.edu | 412-268-8091 | 147 REH

Noel Walkington Professor - Mathematical Sciences Walkington's research interests center around the development and analysis of algorithms for the solution of partial differential equations that arise in engineering and science. He is particularly interested in bringing new tools to bear upon challenging problems that arise in the numerical approximation of pde's. Walkington is also interested in the design and analysis of mesh generation algorithms. Two dimensional mesh generation has evolved to a very satisfactory state; however, many issues remain open in the theory and implementation in three dimensions. noelw@cmu.edu | 412-268-6291 | 6303 WEH

Yang Wang Senior Scientific Specialist Local Density functional (LDA) Theory, Multiple Scattering Theory, Locally Self-consistent Multiple Scattering (LSMS) Method. ywg@psc.edu | 412-268-2795 |

Michael Widom Professor - Physics My research concentrates on the structure of metals and alloys. I develop and apply first-principles multiscale methods that combine quantum mechanics (electronic density functional theory) with statistical mechanics to predict finite temperature thermodynamics. Specific recent projects concentrate on non-crystalline materials, including modeling the structure and formation of metallic glass, and understanding the thermodynamic stability of quasicrystals. widom@cmu.edu | 412-268-2740 | 6424 WEH

B Erik Ydstie Professor - Chemical Engineering To develop methods for stable and robust control and optimization of chemical processes that combine physical models and on-line learning. ydstie@cmu.edu | 412-268-2235 | 2208 DH

CM²EM

CM²EM Overview Presentation (PDF)

If you would like to be involved with CM²EM, contact Director Amit Acharya, Associate Director Michael Widom, or fill out our Feedback Form and an ICES staff member will respond to you.