MSE

Pathological calcification is a wide-spread phenomenon in the human body, in which calcium minerals form in soft tissues and are found in both healthy and diseased tissues. One example are microcalcifications (MCs), which are primarily biological apatite and occur in cancerous and benign breast pathologies. MCs are key mammographic indicators, however, little is known about […]

In nature, organized arrays of elements arise spontaneously from the interactions between their component parts, e.g. reaction-diffusion problems, clustering colloidal particles and granular media, wrinkling surfaces, propagating cracks and flowing liquids. In the wake of biomimicry, I will discuss several strategies aiming to harness mechanical instabilities in flowing liquids, e.g. coiling, droplet formation, digitation, drainage, […]

Modern materials contain extraordinary levels of complexity, with components spanning a hierarchy of length scales. Designing materials with complex microstructures and demonstrating unique behaviors would be difficult solely using a reductionist approach to materials development.   A powerful utility in this endeavor is using multiple, correlative, and scaffolding computational tools.  This talk focused on using an […]

Dr. Moini’s research is focused on bio-inspired design and development of architected materials using novel additive manufacturing processes and automated robotic technologies for applications in civil and energy infrastructure. His work is motivated by the intellectual challenge of understanding the mechanics of intrinsically brittle engineering materials and the development of ductile and flaw-tolerant responses using […]

The invisibility cloak in Harry Potter and the dreams of invisibility as a superpower are no longer fiction. With the invention of metamaterials, they are theoretically and experimentally possible in real life. Metamaterials — materials that are engineered to have properties that are not found in naturally-occuring materials — allow us to overcome physical limitations. […]

Over the last three decades, nanocrystalline alloys (polycrystals with grain sizes of less than 100 nm) have been shown to exhibit superior material properties, such as enhanced specific strength, hardness, wear resistance, radiation resistance, and magnetic properties. However, such structures are inherently thermodynamically unstable; a nanocrystalline configuration comes with a large volume fraction of high-energy […]

Topological materials are solid-state compounds that have atypical charge carriers, often acting analogously to particles in high-energy physics. They are significant for both fundamental and applied science, with potential uses in spintronics, catalysis, and quantum information science. But despite the great promise of this field, the majority of known topological materials conform to the same […]