Lisa Chen Receives a Fulbright Award

Lisa YingYing Chen is a senior majoring in Materials Science and Engineering with a minor in German.  In early April, she was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to conduct research at the Technische Universität Berlin during the 2008-2009 academic year.

Under the advisory of Prof. Walter Reimers, she will be analyzing the stress behavior of metal matrix nanocomposites (MMNCs) through in situ x-ray diffraction. The MMNCs under study will consist of ceramic nanoparticles imbedded in a metal matrix, and the use of x-rays will yield details pertaining to the deformation behavior of MMNCs that cannot be observed by tensile testing alone. While tensile testing may be used to develop initial stress behavior models, proper observation of the microscopic behavior can not only support or disprove the use of these models but also provide insight into other strongly contributing factors. The complex interplay between residual stress, particle distribution, and interface relationships, as well as their respective contribution to load transfer and distribution will be an integral part of her research.

For the success of her application she would like to thank the following faculty members: Prof. Kelly Barry of the German Languages Department, who first proposed the idea; Prof. I.C. Noyan of the APAM Department, without whom the application would be non-existent; and Prof. Stephen O’Brien of the APAM Department, whose support helped make this possible.