Materials Science & Engineering News

Learn more about the recent research accomplishments, contributions, and awards of our Materials Science and Engineering faculty members and students.

News »

Quantum Phase Transition Detected on a Global Scale Deep Inside the Earth

Spin transition discovered in the Earth’s mantle; finding will improve understanding the Earth’s interior, and enable better understanding of tectonic events including volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. More

Oct 12 2021 | By Holly Evarts | Visua Credit: Nicoletta Barolini/Columbia Engineering

Barmak: Using Nanotechnology to Uncover Details of a Medieval Manuscript

Prof. Katayun Barmak was featured in the Columbia News article, "Using Nanotechnology to Uncover Details of a Medieval Manuscript" More

Feb 06 2024 | Columbia News

Yang Wins 2024 CUAFA Young Investigator Award

Prof. Yuan Yang has received the Columbia University Asian Faculty Association (CUAFA) 2024 Young Investigator Award More

Jan 30 2024

Professor Emeritus Daniel N. Beshers (1928-2024)

We mourn the loss and celebrate the life of Professor Emeritus Daniel N. Beshers More

Jan 29 2024

Barmak Named 2023 Fellow of ASM International Society

Katayun Barmak, the Philips Electronics Professor, was named a Fellow of the ASM International Society More

Apr 26 2023

Billinge Named Flack Lecturer for the Swiss Society for Crystallography

Simon Billinge was named the Flack Lecturer for the 2023 Howard Flack Lecture Series of the Swiss Society for Crystallography SGK/SSCr in November 2023 More

Nov 20 2023

New research is helping scientists better understand how microstructures change

A team of materials scientists and applied mathematicians, including Prof. Katayun Barmak, developed a mathematical model that more accurately describes such More

Apr 24 2023 | Phys.org

Pets, Politics and Pandemics

Prof. Simon Billinge has launched a new open course on systems theory More

Feb 22 2023 | Coursera

Billinge's Research Published in Nature Materials

Simon Billinge's newest paper, "Dynamic crystallography reveals spontaneous anisotropy in cubic GeTe," published in Nature Materials More

Feb 21 2023 | Nature Materials

Yang Receives DURIP Award

Yuan Yang was awarded an instrument from the Defense University Research Instrumentation Program (DURIP) program. More

Nov 28 2022

Wentzcovitch Named President-elect of AGU’s Mineral and Rock Physics Section

Renata Wentzcovitch, professor of material science and applied physics, and earth and environmental sciences, has been named president-elect for the American More

Nov 17 2022 | AGU.org

Seeing More Deeply into Nanomaterials

New 3D imaging tool reveals engineered and self-assembled nanoparticle lattices with highest resolution yet—7nm—about 1/100,000 of the width of a human hair More

Apr 13 2022 | By Holly Evarts | Photo Credit: Oleg Gang/Columbia Engineering

Barmak and Colleagues Win AFOSR MURI Award for Precision Testing and Evaluation of Computer Chips

Katayun Barmak and colleagues have won a highly-competitive Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) Award from the Air Force Office Scientific More

Mar 28 2022

Yang Named 2021 Materials Today Rising Star Awardee

Yuan Yang has been named one of the 2021 Materials Today Rising Star Award Winners More

Jan 20 2022 | Materials Today

Simon Billinge Mentors Student-Led Team That Wins $60,000 Google Research Award

Project will improve computational capabilities for researchers in East Africa through a local organization that trains PhD students in materials science More

Jan 06 2022 | By Allison Chen

Mary Rose Conservation Project Featured by Numerous Media Outelts

Simon Bilinge is part of an international team who has applied a new method - ctPDF - to discover potentially harmful substances within the Mary Rose’s wooden More

Nov 04 2021

Billinge: Researchers Use New X-ray Technique to Conserve Henry VIII’s Favorite Warship

International team applied new method--ctPDF--developed at Columbia Engineering and the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility to discover potentially harmful More

Oct 28 2021 | Columbia Engineering News

Barmak and Colleagues Win the Prestigious NSF DMREF Award for Microstructure by Design

Katayun Barmak and her colleagues won a 4-year $1.8 million National Science Foundation 'Designing Materials to Revolutionize and Engineer our Future' (DMREF) More

Sep 28 2021

Uncovering Hidden Local States in a Quantum Material

By heating the material, scientists discovered states of local broken symmetry, which may enable the technologically relevant properties—such as those for More

Jul 06 2021 | Brookhaven National Laboratory

Barmak Paper Featured on Cover of Journal of Applied Physics

Barmak's paper is featured on the cover page as a featured article More

Oct 04 2021

Building Tough 3D Nanomaterials with DNA

Columbia Engineers use DNA nanotechnology to create highly resilient synthetic nanoparticle-based materials that can be processed through conventional More

Mar 19 2021 | By Holly Evarts | Photos and Animation Oleg Gang/Columbia Engineering

Billinge - Think Like an Engineer

Simon Billinge and his group uses AI to invent stronger, more sustainable materials More

Jun 24 2021 | Columbia Engineering Magazine

Yang Wins 3M Award

Yuan Yang, Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, has won a 3M Non-tenured Faculty Award. More

May 19 2021

Barmak Serves on Organizing Committee for SIAM Conference on Mathematical Aspects of Materials Science

May 19 2021

Yang featured in Scientific American

Yuan Yang comments on a new study published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces More

May 21 2021 | Scientific American

Billinge Applies Data Science to Scientific Domains

Research from Prof. Simon Billinge and colleagues was recently published in the article, "Active Reaction Control of Cu Redox State Based on Real-Time Feedback More

Oct 28 2020 | JACS

2020 Simon Prize Award

May 21 2020

2020 MSE Senior Design Project

May 08 2020

2020 Senior Award Winners

May 06 2020

A rainbow of layered paints could help buildings to keep their cool

Apr 30 2020 | Nature

Enabling New DNA-Based Therapy For Anti-Cancer Drug Delivery

Scientists designed a tunable peptide-like molecular coating that enables 3-D DNA origami to maintain their structural integrity and functionality in different More

Mar 13 2020 | By Brookhaven National Laboratory | Images Courtesy of Brookhaven National Laboratory

Gold in Limbo Between Solid and Melted States

Mar 02 2020 | Brookhaven National Laboratory | BNL Newsroom

Billinge Wins EPDIC Distinguished Powder Diffractionist Prize

Jan 09 2020

Prof Oleg Gang Makes 3-D Nanosuperconductors with DNA

Complex 3-D nanoscale architectures based on DNA self-assembly can conduct electricity without resistance and may provide a platform for fabricating quantum More

Nov 10 2020 | By Ariana Manglaviti | Illustration Credit: Brookhaven National Laboratory

Nano-objects of Desire: Assembling Ordered Nanostructures in 3-D

Scientists establish new nanofabrication platform for directing nanomaterial components of different natures into 3-D arrays with prescribed organizations; More

Jan 13 2020 | Team Photo Credit: Columbia Engineering | Assembly Schematic Credit: Brookhaven National Laboratory | Platform Schematic and Fluorescence Images: Courtesy of the Nature Materials Paper | VIDEO CREDIT: JANE NISSELSON/COLUMBIA ENGINEERING

Billinge and Barmak: Engineering the Future of Cultural Preservation

Feb 21 2020 | Columbia Engineering Magazine | Columbia Engineering Magazine

Yang Named One of MIT Technology Review's 'Innovators Under 35'

Prof. Yuan Yang was named one of the "Innovators Under 35" by MIT Technology Review More

Dec 19 2019 | MIT Technology Review

APAM Faculty Featured in Columbia Engineering Magazine

Jan 02 2020 | Columbia Engineering Magazine

Porous Polymer Coatings Dynamically Control Light and Heat

New inexpensive, scalable design takes advantage of the optical switchability of porous polymers; could be used for heating, cooling, and lighting buildings, as More

Oct 21 2019 | By Holly Evarts | PPC Transparency Photo Credit: Jyotirmoy Mandal/Columbia Engineering | Thermoregulation Photo Credit: Jyotirmoy Mandal/Mingxin Jia/Columbia Engineering

Nanoscale Sculpturing Leads to Unusual Packing of Nanocubes

Understanding this behavior is key to engineering new materials with specific desired properties More

May 17 2019

New Method Increases Energy Density in Lithium Batteries

Novel technique may lead to longer battery life in portable electronics and electrical vehicles More

Oct 24 2016 | By Holly Evarts

Understanding Cobalt Oxide - A Promising Artificial Photosynthesis Catalyst

Jun 16 2019

Michal Lipson Elected to National Academy of Sciences

Lipson was named in recognition of her “continuing and distinguished achievements in original research.” More

Apr 30 2019 | By Joanne Hvala | Photo courtesy of Michal Lipson

2019 Senior Design Expo

May 09 2019

Dr. Norman Nan Shi Wins 2019 Simon Prize Award

May 14 2019

SWE Hosts Women in Engineering Day

May 07 2019 | By Joanne Hvala | Agrawal, Chilton Photo Credit: Timothy Lee Photographers | Di, Obermeyer Photo Credit: Jeffrey Schifman

Liu Wins American Crystallographic Association Student Presenter Award

Aug 01 2019

MSE News Archive

How Surface Ligands Influence the Lattice Dynamics of Cadmium Selenide Quantum Dot Nanoparticles (3/6/2019)
Noyan Wins 2019 Hanawalt Award (1/15/2019)
The luck of the materials scientist (10/18/2018)
Media Outlets Cover Science Paper by Mandal, Yang, and Yu (9/28/2019)
Wright Receives NumFOCUS Award (9/27/2018)
Chan Elected APS Fellow (9/25/2018)
Terban Wins BNL's 2018 Baumert Ph.D. Thesis Award (5/18/2018)
Billinge Wins 2018 Warren Award (5/8/2018)
Beshers' Research Published in Scientific Reports (12/13/2017)
Öztürk Wins 2017 Sidhu Award (10/12/2017)
Yang Wins 2017 RISE Grant (7/25/2017)
Billinge: Materials of Tomorrow (7/21/2017)
Yang: On the Verge of a Battery-Powered Revolution (7/20/2017)
Gang: Nanoparticles that Put Themselves Together (7/18/2017)
Yang Co-Hosted MRS Spring Meeting Symposium (6/8/2017)
Noyan Presents Opening Lecture at SNSS-21 (5/30/2017)
Bailey's Hybrid Learning Course Redesign and Delivery Award (5/26/2017)
Barmak Receives 2017 SEAS Kim Award for Faculty Involvement (5/16/2017)
Marianetti: High-Performance Computing at Columbia (3/9/2017)
Billinge and Gang Featured in BNL's Top-10 Science Successes of 2016 (1/11/2017)
Marianetti Wins DOE Grant on Phonon Interactions (12/12/2016)
New Faculty Member: Oleg Gang (7/1/2016)
Revealing the Nature of Magnetic Interactions in Manganese Oxide (5/24/2016)
Light Could Become the Dominant Form of Heat Transfer (4/1/2016)
Heat and Light Get Larger at the Nanoscale (3/31/2016)
Barmak: Joint Magnetism and Magnetic Materials and Intermag Conference (2/4/2016)
Billinge: Big Data for Designing Amazingly Useful Materials (10/1/2015)
New MSE Course - BNL's Advanced Tools and Techniques for Material Characterization (9/14/2015)
Q&A: Katayun Barmak (9/7/2015)
Chris Marianetti: Theory Unlocks the Secrets at the Nanoscale (9/7/2015)
Chan Collaborates with Zhejiang University Faculty (9/1/2015)
Billinge Explores Nanoscale Structure of Thin Films (8/18/2015)
Noyan Receives Jenkins Award at X-Ray Conference (8/12/2015)
MSE Students & Researchers Featured on ORNL Site (4/8/2015)
Billinge: Brookhaven Presents Big Data Pilot Projects at Supercomputing Conference (3/18/2015)
Simon Billinge's Research (3/20/2015)
First Scientific Publication from Data Collected at NSLS-II (3/3/2015)
Guha Elected National Academy of Engineering Member (2/6/2015)
Unusual Electronic State Found in New Class of Unconventional Superconductors (12/9/2014)
Neumark Research Cited in 2014 Nobel Prize Release (10/8/2014)
Supercomputers Reveal Strange, Stress-Induced Transformations in World's Thinnest Materials (7/24/2014)
Billinge: Studying the Tiniest of Details (4/28/2014)
Metallic Films for Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Applications (2/21/2014)
Billinge Named Fellow of the Neutron Scattering Society of America (2/10/2014)