News Archive

2011
2010
2009
2008

NEWS BY YEAR

7/7/11
Four UNT researchers recently received almost $600,000 to develop sustainable, energy-efficient and multifunctional bioproducts for construction purposes from the National Science Foundation's Partnership for Innovation program. The program connects researchers and small businesses in an effort to transform knowledge created by academic research into innovative solutions for the real world.

UNT will work with InnoVida Southeast in Miami, Fla., and Ladonia Market Center (LMC) in Ladonia, Texas, to develop composite panels that use plant fibers in the place of glass fibers. The UNT team will be led by Dr. Nandika D'Souza, professor of Materials Science and Engineering, who will oversee the design and creation of the new materials. The composite materials could be used for construction, cars and aircraft and for a number of other uses. Currently, 3 to 5 billion pounds of fiberglass are produced annually. (Read More)

7/4/11
Dr. Thomas Scharf and Dr. Jincheng Du have received a National Science Foundation (NSF) award to study solid state lubricants under extreme conditions. The award provides total support of $282,079 for three years to investigate critical issues of solid state lubricants by combining state of the art experimental and computational research efforts. These issues include how changes to the structure and defect chemistry of solid oxide lubricants can influence their high temperature properties. The award will involve both graduate and undergraduate researchers that utilize the CART characterization facilities and UNT Talon and Eagle high performance computer facilities. (Read More)

6/30/11
On June 29th, 2011, Dr. Peter Collins (Site Director) received notification that The National Science Foundation has decided to fund a Industrial/University Cooperative Research Center (I/UCRC) between the Colorado School of Mines and the University of North Texas on the subject of "Advanced Non-Ferrous Structural Alloys". This Center will combine faculty expertise at both universities, along with expertise from the industrial participants to address the physical metallurgy of non-ferrous alloys.  This will focus on the effects that alloying and processing have on the resulting microstructure of the materials, their properties and performance.  Given the focus on impacting the industrial partners in the short-term, I/UCRC's such as this new Center are relatively unique in that they seek to integrating the state-of-the-art science conducted at institutions such as UNT into meaningful tools and results that can be used quickly.  The motivation to launch this center stems from a real need to address the historical decline in funding for non-ferrous physical metallurgy research, resulting in negative impacts on these industries that are an essential element of the Nation's technological and economic health.  This Center will be well aligned with other activities in the Department, and will help UNT continue to establish national and international visibility as one of a few universities that educates students in the relevant areas of physical metallurgy.  The Center will engage many faculty and students in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at UNT, including (in addition to Collins), Drs. Banerjee, Dahotre, Needleman, Srivilliputhur, and Wang.  Both graduate and undergraduate students will be involved in research programs selected by the industrial sponsors.

6/16/11
Every year the Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers (STLE) organize a student poster contest in an attempt to provide the opportunity for students to present their research activities. For the second year in a row, Hamidreza Mohseni was awarded the first place prize amongst 36 national and international students at the STLE 2011 annual meeting in Atlanta, GA. Hamidreza’s award winning poster was titled: Friction Mitigation in Nanocrystalline ZnO via Subsurface-Induced Plastic Shear. This investigation was supervised by Professor Thomas W. Scharf. It involved a collaborative effort of experimental and computational (with the help of Professor Srinivasan Srivilliputhur and graduate student Niraj Gupta) approaches to reveal the fundamental mechanisms responsible for friction reduction and wear minimization in solid lubricant nanocrystalline ZnO.

6/6/11
Dr. Narendra Dahotre, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Materials Science & Engineering, recently co-authored a book entitled Laser Machining of Advanced Materials (far left). The book was published in March, 2011 by CRC Press of Taylor & Francis Group. It is a hardcover book covering several advantages of laser machining such as capabilities for machining the materials that are difficult to machine otherwise. It focuses on the underlying physical phenomena with special emphasis on the fundamental principles of this interesting and emerging process for machining of advanced materials. The book is intended as a useful resource for senior undergraduate and graduate students in materials science and manufacturing and research source for scientists and engineers. The book’s co-author is Dr. Anoop Samant of the University of Arkansas. Earlier, Professor Dahotre has written two additional books: Laser Machining and Fabrication of Materials (Springer, 2007) and Materials Science in Manufacturing(Academic/Elsevier Press, 2006).

5/25/11
The UNT chapter of Material Advantage is hosting the 2011 ASM Materials Camp from July 18th to July 20th. The camp hopes to "open the world of materials engineering and nanotechnology to enthusiastic high school students." Download the flyer or apply now!

5/18/11
On Friday, May 13th, six seniors presented during the Spring 2011 MTSE Senior Undergraduate Research Seminars at Discovery Park. Paul Mummey (Advisor: Prof. D'Szoua), Carl Morandi (Co-Advisors: Profs. Reidy and Scharf), Ian Mackinnon (Advisor: Prof. Banerjee), Casey Smith (Advisor: Prof. Banerjee), Larry Kuo (Advisor: Prof. Du), and Marvin Solomon (Advisor: Prof. Shepherd) presented.

5/11/11
Congratulations to Dr. Alan Needleman who recently received the 2011 Timoshenko Medal! The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) annually bestows this award to an individual "in recognition of distinguished contributions to the field of applied mechanics." The Timoshenko Medal is widely regarded as the highest international award in the field. Several prior winners of this medal are world renowned researchers and teachers including the first Medalist, Stephen P. Timoshenko, in 1957. Like the Medalists before him, Dr. Needleman will be invited to ASME's Applied Mechanics Dinner during the winter annual meeting to deliver a lecture. You can view past lectures at the Timoshenko Lecture Project. We are extremely proud of Dr. Needleman and this honor to him provides tremendous visibility to our department and UNT. (Read More)

4/15/11
April 13, 2011, a group of UNT students from the Material Science and Engineering department presented
at the 2nd North Texas Inter-University Materials Science and Engineering Symposium at UT Arlington.
The symposium was organized by UT Arlington and sponsored by American Society of Metals (ASM) International. Five graduate students from UNT presented their research at the symposium together with fellow students from UT Dallas, SMU, and the host UT Arlington. Ye Xiang, a PhD student in the MSE program, won the third prize of the symposium. Shailesh Vidhate, Niraj Gupta, Shravan Katakam, and Shivraj Karewar presented at the symposium. Photo shows the five participants, Dr. Du, Dr. Srivilliputhur and several members of the Material Advantage UNT chapter after the symposium.

3/7/11
The Department of Material Science and Engineering & the Materials Advantage UNT Chapter have had an Awards and Volunteer Recognition Ceremony on February 25, 2011. The ceremony was to recognize the outstanding student leadership and volunteer activities including organization of Material Summer Camps, science fair and home coming events, MSE research labs and facilities tours, and connections to local high school students in the past few years. These activities have greatly helped our student recruiting and promoted science and engineering education. Arun Devaraj, who is the current Material Advantage president, was awarded the Outstanding Leadership and Service Award. Antariksh Singh and seven other students were awarded the Outstanding Service and Support Award. Hitesh Vora and nine other students were awarded the Outstanding Volunteer Award. The ceremony also presented Material Advantage Travel Awards to three undergraduate students Ian Mackinnon, Lawrence Kuo and Casey Smith for their attendance and presentation at the Material Science and Technology (MS&T) 2010 conference at Houston TX. Prof. Narendra Dahotre, Chair of MTSE, Prof. Jincheng Du, faculty advisor of MA UNT chapter, and Prof. Tom Scharf, MTSE undergraduate advisor, attended the ceremony.

2/20/11
Dr. Thomas Scharf and co-authors have been named the 2011 recipients of the Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers' Al Sonntag Award for the researchers' paper on a novel nanocomposite coating. (Read More)

8/10/10
MTSE Student Hamidreza Mohseni recently attended a topical conference sponsored by the Society of Vacuum Coaters (SVC) in November 2009 in Albuquerque NM.  He presented an oral talk on the outcomes of a research project titled "Improvement in Thermal and Wear Resistance of Carbon/Carbon Composites by Infiltration of ZrO2 with Atomic Layer Deposition."  For his efforts, he was subsequently awarded $5000 scholarship from The Helen and Rolf Illsley fund of the Society of Vacuum Coaters Foundation.  This highly competitive scholarship is granted to two graduate students annually.  Hamidreza has also been invited to attend the 2011 SVC Technical conference to show a poster presentation of his work.

More recently Hamidreza participated in a student poster contest that was held by Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers (STLE) at their 2010 annual meeting in Las Vegas, NV.  Among the national and international 46 student poster entries, he received the highest level Platinum award ($150) for his superior scientific and presentation quality.  An extended abstract of his work will appear in the August issue of STLE’s Tribology and Lubrication Technology (TLT) magazine.

8/4/10
Dr. Nandika D'Souza has been featured on the Engineer Girl! website, along with other inspirational female engineers. Dr. D'Szoua tells girls, "Cultural and Gender differences enhance more than detract from a person’s potential. Don’t accept, suspect the motivations of those who ask you to limit what you want to do." (Read More)

7/6/10
Dr. Narendra Dahotre has received a new grant entitled, “Collaborative Research: Composite Surfacing of Amorphous Materials by Laser Interference” from the National Science Foundation at the level $208,868 for July 1. 2010 to June 30, 2013.  The project is a collaborative effort with Dr. Sandip Harimkar, Oklahoma State University who also has been separately funded at the level $188,521. The primary objective of this research proposal is to develop a new class of laser surface engineered amorphous materials characterized by enhanced ductility. The enhancement of the ductility of such amorphous materials is expected due to the formation of an array of periodic lines or spots of modified regions on the surface of amorphous material by laser interference nanopatterning. The major objectives of the proposed research are to: (1) design and test the innovative laser interference patterning process set-ups with a focus on creating nanostructured modifications on the surface of amorphous alloy; (2) identify the thermo-physical effects associated with the interaction of modulated laser intensity in laser interference pattern with amorphous surface; (3) characterize the evolution of modulated microstructure (associated with localized nanocrystallization), crystallization dynamics, and distribution of residual stresses in the composite surfaces; (4) establish the role of surface nanocrystallization and/or residual stresses on enhancing global plasticity of the amorphous materials; and (5) model the thermo-physical interactions associated with laser interference nanopatterning of amorphous material surfaces. The proposal provides an opportunity for graduate students to work on a novel processing method and advanced material.

6/30/10
The II-VI Foundation has awarded a gift of $100,000 to the Laboratory of Advanced Polymers & Optimized Materials (LAPOM), directed by Dr. Witold Brostow, which will go toward a project titled "Improvement of Effectiveness of Electric Power Generation." (Read More)

6/28/10
Dr. Narendra Dahotre, Professor and Chairman, has been elected as Fellow of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME). He will be inducted in the 2010 Class of Fellows later in the year at the SME headquarters in Detroit, Michigan along with five other electees. He has been recognized for the pioneering contributions to fundamental understanding and engineering of laser-materials interactions along with implementation of high power lasers in materials processing and surface engineering. He is internationally known for his work on fundamentals and applications of laser surface engineering of metals, ceramics, polymers and composites. His work over 25 years on laser materials-interactions has been compiled in four books, 15 U.S. Patents, 11 proceedings and over 200 papers. Earlier, has also been elected to 2009 Class of AAAS Fellows, 2008 Class of ASME Fellows, 2008 Class of IIM Fellows and 2004 Class of ASM  Follows. He has received 2006 R&D 100 Award, 2006 University of Tennessee Chancellor’s Research and Creativity Achievement Award, 2006 University of Tennessee College of Engineering Research Fellow Award. (Read More)

3/31/10
Fall of 2010 High School Seniors are invited to attend the ASM Materials Camp from July 12th to the 14th in the Materials Science and Engineering Department at Discovery Park. The cost is free! For more information and to apply, click here.

3/29/10
The University of North Texas YouTube Channel recently featured Materials Science and Engineering Senior Jeff Helstad. In the video Helstad talks about his research and mentors in the College of Engineering. Dr. Scharf and Dr. Srivilliputhur also make an appearance. (Watch Video)

12/18/09
Dr. Jincheng Du, along with a team of researchers from the University of California at Los Angeles and the University of Colorado, has helped develop a new and more effective way to obtain 3D images called ankylography. The new process could have significant applications in physical and life sciences. The team's work was featured in the December issue of Nature. (Read More)

12/11/09
Future department chair, Dr. Narendra Dahotre, has been elected to the 2009 Class of AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Fellows for outstanding contributions to research and development and teaching of science and technology of laser materials processing and surface engineering. He will be presented with his certificate February 20th during the AAAS Fellows Forum in San Diego.

12/10/09
Materials Science and Engineering Senior Jeff Helstad was featured in the November 27th issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education. With the science knowledge he has gained at UNT, he will be joining the National Guard in the Middle East next spring. He will be working with other researchers to study the effects of the hot desert sun on guns, armor, and other equipment. Good luck Jeff!

9/26/09
The Boards of Directors/Trustees of ACerS, AIST, ASM International and TMS have approved the chartering of a the new Material Advantage Chapter of University of North Texas. The chapter was founded on a membership fee donation by Dr. Nandika Anne D’Souza. The Material Advantage UNT Chapter currently has about 20 members with Arun Devaraj as the president and Dr. Jincheng Du as faculty adviser.The effort of the chapter has been focused on exploring the fun side of material science, which would educate the members and increase the awareness of material science field for members of the UNT campus and for the community including local high school students. An article about the chapter and the activities is published in the AIST iron steel technology August 2009 edition. For details on the chapter activities and upcoming events refer to the web page www.orgs.unt.edu/MA . If you are interested to explore the fascinating world of material science contact any of the officers of Material advantage chapter and join us in our Fall 2009 general meetings. The chapter has a page in also on Facebook. In the coming semesters we are looking forward to expand and extent our outreach to the high schools in the near by area of UNT.

9/24/09
Materials Science and Engineering Senior Jeff Helstad has been featured on the UNT home page. With the science knowledge he has gained at UNT, he will be joining the National Guard in the Middle East next spring. He will be working with other researchers to study the effects of the hot desert sun on guns, armor, and other equipment. Good luck Jeff! (Read Article)

9/8/09
Dr. Narendra Dahotre, Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, is elected to the 2009 Fellow of the Indian Institute of Metals (IIM). He has been recognized for excellence and outstanding contributions to basic understanding and engineering of laser-materials interactions along with implementation of high power lasers for materials processing and surface engineering.

Such fellowships are awarded by the IIM to a foreign member when his/her accomplishments and services in the field of metallurgical and materials engineering are internationally prominent and also significantly beneficial to the Indian community. He is internationally known for his work on fundamentals and applications of laser surface engineering of metals, ceramics, polymers and composites.

His work over 25 years on laser materials-interactions has been compiled in four books, 15 U.S. Patents, 12 proceedings and over 190 papers. Earlier, he has received 2006 R&D 100 Award, 2006 UT Chancellor’s Research and Creativity Achievement Award, 2006 UT College of Engineering Research Fellow Award and has been elected to 2004 Class of ASM Fellows and 2008 Class of ASME Fellows.

9/3/09
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded UNT Profs. Mohammad Omary, Jincheng Du, and Thomas Cundari a major grant to study novel metalloaromatic materials for potential use in molecular electronics. In this multi-investigator project, UNT professors will work with Prof. Bruce Gnade of the University of Texas at Dallas to synthesize new multinuclear Au, Ag, and Cu complexes, study their optoelectronic properties, and explore their efficacy in metal-organic field effect transistor (MOFET) devices. The grant is a three-year project with a total support of $1.3 M, awarded following submission to the prestigious Collaborative Research in Chemistry (CRC) program at NSF. This award came on the heels of seed funding of an NHARP award from the State of Texas to this team. The four investigators will collaborate on the synthesis, structural characterization, material screening, molecular and solid-state modeling, and device testing of the title complexes.  The film forming properties and solid state device behavior of these compounds will be examined, and information gained from these studies will be fed back to develop new design parameters for the materials.  It is suggested that the superior electrostatic properties of the materials and their stability towards light, heat and moisture are encouraging factors for fabrication of stable thin films and efficient devices.  The cyclotrimer complexes and coordination polymers also have the potential to perform better than purely organic field effect transistor (OFET) materials based on reliable theoretical predictions of fundamental properties that have been verified conceptually by experimental techniques.  Any or all of these improvements to the state-of-the-art would significantly impact the molecular electronics field given the fact that transistors are the most critical components of all electronic devices.  The investigators will also work with two UNT research clusters of excellence in nano-photonics (BNPC) and advanced computing (MMRC) to enhance cross-disciplinary training for graduates and undergrads from both the Chemistry and MSE departments as well as to involve local K-12 institutions in the research, following prior successes by the PIs in these aspects.

8/7/09
Jeff Hetherly (MTSE graduate student working with Srinivasan Srivilliputhur) is spending the summer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL).  He is in the photo (right) with Dr. George Miller, Director of LLNL (middle) and his summer mentor, Dr. Alfredo Caro during the student poster session at LLNL.

8/6/09
Witold Brostow was elected member of the Ukrainian Academy of Petroleum and Natural Gas in June.  Dr. Brostow is already a member of the European Academy of Sciences and of the Mexican National Academy of Sciences.

8/5/09
MTSE Senior Jeff Helstad, with the science knowledge he has gained at UNT, will be joining the National Guard in the Middle East next spring. He will be working with other researchers to study the effects of the hot desert sun on guns, armor, and other equipment. Good luck Jeff! (Read Full News Article)

8/3/09
We are pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Narendra Dahotre as the new Chair of the Department of Material Science and Engineering.

Dr. Dahotre is currently a Professor with joint appointment at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering of the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. He is also a senior faculty member of the Center for Laser Applications at the University of Tennessee Space Institute-Tullahoma and was Chairman (2002) and Vice Chairman (2003) of the center. Dr. Dahotre is the author of two technical books and editor/co-editor of 14 books. He is the author of over 144 reviewed technical journal articles. He holds 15 US patents in the area of laser materials processing. He has organized 15 symposia and conferences in the area of Surface Engineering and High Temperature Coatings and contributed to 40 technical presentations and chaired over 25 technical sessions at national and international conferences.  Dr. Dahotre is an ASM International Fellow(2002), ASME Fellow(2007), and IIM Fellow(2009).

Dr. Dahotre will join UNT on January 1, 2010.

8/2/09
Dr. Zhiqiang Wang will join MTSE as an assistant professor in our department this Fall.  Dr. Wang received his PhD from UCLA and is currently a postdoctoral research associate at Los Alamos National Laboratory.  His research interests include computational nano/micro mechanics and mesoscaling modeling of materials specifically dislocation dynamics.  Dr. Wang will join the MTSE computational group (Drs. Du, Needleman, and Srivilliputhur) and the Center for Advanced Scientific Computing and Modeling (CASCaM).

7/8/09
The First MTSE NSF CAREER Award!  Our own Srinivasan G. Srivilliputhur (Srini) was just awarded the very prestigious National Science Foundation CAREER Grant for his proposal “Fundamental Insights into Deformation of Lightweight Alloys from Discovery-Class Atomistic Simulations”.  He will receive $430,000 over 5 years to study these lightweight alloys for potential transportation applications.   Srini received this grant on his first attempt- an even more impressive accomplishment.

6/15/09
Dr. Jincheng Du will conduct a three-year project to further our understanding of bioactive glasses, which can be used to restore and repair bones. His proposed research was featured on the front page of the Denton Record Chronicle on June 14th!

6/5/09
Dr Guido Verbeck (PI) from Chemistry and Dr. Thomas Scharf (co-PI) received an Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) – Defense University Research Instrumentation Program (DURIP) grant titled, “Acquisition of an Inductively-Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer with Laser Ablation Source for Surface Characterization,” for $244,516.

5/27/09
Jeff Helstad, an undergraduate student in the Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) Department, was awarded the Science, Mathematics and Research for Transformation (SMART) Scholarship from the Naval Postgraduate School and the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE). 

The award consists of a $25,000 stipend per year for 2 years, and option of pursuing a master’s degree upon receiving the bachelor’s, with continued benefits. It also includes full tuition, $1,000 per year book allowance, $1,200 health insurance, travel and moving expenses, and choice of job placement at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) relevant to Helstad’s interests and goals.

“I am honored that this scholarship award will bring more recognition to the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and to UNT.” Said Helstad. “The high quality of its laboratories, the mentoring and personal attention to students by its faculty, and its close relationship with industry, have resulted in a first class atmosphere in the department.”  Upon graduation Helstad plans to do research on metal-ceramic and ceramic-ceramic hybrids for use in thermal, mechanical, lubricious, or corrosive resistant applications.

As a summer intern, Helstad worked with Dr. Thomas Scharf on a critical problem in trying to mitigate friction and wear (field of tribology) at high interfacial temperatures in moving mechanical assemblies, such as rolling element bearings, bushings and gun barrels. 

“The SMART scholarship will enable Jeff to work future summers at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, OH on related thermal protection management issues employing hybrid composites, such as ceramic infiltrated carbon-carbon composites and thermal barrier coating composites.” Said Scharf.  “Jeff’s research in these areas will have synergy with UNT’s Institute for Science and Engineering Simulation (ISES) program supported by the AFRL.”

The Materials Science and Engineering Department may receive additional funding under ISES to help Helstad complete his senior research project. The research will be directly relevant to what he will be doing when he joins the AFRL.

5/13/09
A big congratulations to Sandeep Manandhar! He has received the Best Student Research Paper Award from BioEnvironmental Polymer Society (BEPS) on the paper Water Soluble Levan Biopolymer Electrospun Fibers (Sandeep Manandhar, Shailesh Vidhate, Nandika D'Souza) . We are proud of your initiative in getting this done!

4/21/09
The Material Advantage Student Chapter is officially active in the Material Science and Engineering Department of UNT, offering UNT students access to the most preeminent societies of material science TMS, ASM international, AIST and AcerS. The chapter president is Arun Devaraj, doctoral student, and the faculty advisor is Dr. Jincheng Du. Visit the website for more information.

2/11/09
The Bio/Nano-photonics Research Cluster at the University of North Texas (UNT) seeks candidates for faculty positions in the broad area of Nanoscale Devices and faculty positions in the broad area of Biophotonics.

2/2/09
The University of North Texas invites applications for a full professor position in synthesis and/or characterization of damage tolerant materials. Successful candidate may have opportunity to serve as Director of CART if desired. Screening of applications will begin upon receipt and continue until the search is closed.

10/27/08
The Department Chair position is still available. Applications and nominations should be sent to MSE.Search@unt.edu. We also have Tenure Track Faculty Position in Mesoscale Materials Modeling and Post-Doctoral Research Position in Computational Materials Science available.

8/13/08
Koffi Dagnon and Jun Zhou have been awarded the University of North Texas Graduate School Thesis/Dissertation Award! This award consists of a stipend in the amount of $24,000 and covers tuition and mandatory fees for three semester hours of thesis or dissertation course enrollment during Fall 2008, Spring 2009, and Summer 2009. The TDA is to provide support for the completion of their thesis / dissertation as the final year of their degree program during the 2008-2009 academic year. Funding for their TDA and associated tuition and mandatory fees is provided as a partnership between the Graduate School and the Office of the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs.  The TDA is for one academic year and is not renewable.

6/2/08
Jeffrey Hetherly, a MSE graduate student this fall, has been awarded the competitive AFCI fellowship. Jeff graduated Magna cum Laude with a degree in Physics from UNT in May 2008. He plans to study the science of irradiation induce defect formation in materials using atomistic modeling. This work will be done in collaboration with researchers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. At UNT, Jeff's work will be mentored by Dr. Srinivasan Srivilliputhur of the UNT MSE Department and Dr. Duncan Weathers of the UNT Physics Department.