Four-Dimensional (4D) X-ray Microtomography: Probing Microstructural Evolution of Materials
Advances in experimental methods, analytical techniques, and computational approaches, have now enabled the development of in situ techniques that allow us to probe the time-resolved behavior of materials. The study of microstructures under an external stimulus (e.g., stress, temperature, environment) as a function of time is particularly exciting. X-ray microtomography and diffraction contrast tomography provide a powerful means of characterization microstructural evolution in materials non-destructively. In this talk, I will describe experiments that address the critical link between microstructural evolution and deformation behavior of materials, by using three-dimensional (3D) x-ray tomography both at the lab and using synchrotron facilities.

Nikhilesh Chawla is the Ransburg Professor of Materials Engineering in the School of Materials Engineering and Co-director of Semiconductor Degree Programs at Purdue University. He joined Purdue in 2020, after previously serving as Founding Director of the Center for 4D Materials Science and Fulton Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Arizona State University. Chawla received his PhD degree in materials science and engineering from the University of Michigan in 1997. He is a Fellow of ASM International and a recipient of the following awards: Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecturer Award (2022–2023), University of Michigan Department of Materials Science and Engineering Distinguished Alumnus Award for 2018, Acta Materialia Silver Medal for 2017, and the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (New Mexico Tech) Distinguished Alumnus Award for 2016. He’s also won the National Science Foundation Early Career Development Award and the Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award. Chawla was an Editor for Materials Science and Engineering A, published by Elsevier between 2012 and 2023 (2022 Impact Factor of 6.4). He also serves on the Editorial Boards of Materials Characterization and Materials Chemistry and Physics. He has served or is serving on several External Advisory Boards, including that of the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory, and New Mexico Tech.

Mixed-Dimensional Neuromorphic Computing Materials and Applications
The exponentially improving performance of digital computers has recently slowed due to the speed and power consumption issues resulting from the von Neumann bottleneck. In contrast, neuromorphic computing aims to circumvent these limitations by spatially co-locating logic and memory in a manner analogous to biological neuronal networks. Beyond reducing power consumption, neuromorphic devices provide efficient architectures for image recognition, machine learning and artificial intelligence. This talk will explore how mixed-dimensional nanoelectronic materials enable gate-tunable neuromorphic devices including multiterminal memtransistors, mixed-kernel heterojunction transistors, and Moiré synaptic transistors. By enabling foundational circuit elements for bio-realistic neuromorphic computing, mixed-dimensional nanoelectronic materials can serve as the basis of energy-efficient hardware accelerators for next-generation artificial intelligence applications.

Mark C. Hersam is the Walter P. Murphy Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Director of the Materials Research Center, and Chair of the Materials Science and Engineering Department at Northwestern University. An elected member of the National Academy of Engineering, Hersam has received several honors including the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society (TMS) Robert Lansing Hardy Award, Materials Research Society (MRS) Outstanding Young Investigator, American Vacuum Society (AVS) Medard W. Welch Award, U.S. Science Envoy, and MacArthur Fellowship.

This talk will not take place in Seattle and will only be available in the 2024 MRS Spring Meeting Virtual Platform

Mark Miodownik is the UCL Professor of Materials & Society.  He received his PhD degree in turbine jet engine alloys from Oxford University, and has worked as a materials engineer in the USA, Ireland and the UK. For more than twenty years he has championed materials science research that links to the arts and humanities, medicine, and society. This culminated in the establishment of the UCL Institute of Making, where he is a director and runs the research programme.  Mark also recently set up the Plastic Waste Innovation Hub to carry our research into solving the environmental catastrophe of plastic waste dealing with topics such as biodegradable plastics and product reuse and repairability. Mark is the multi-award winning author of New York Times bestselling book Stuff Matters. He regularly presents BBC TV and radio programmes on materials science and engineering.  In 2014 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. In 2018 he was awarded an MBE for services to materials science, engineering and broadcasting.

The Ordered, the Heterogeneous, and the Intertwined at the Nanoscale
Chen will discuss the electron videography studies of various soft, biological and energy materials and processes. She reveals how order, heterogeneity, and sometimes their interactions at the finest atomic to nanoscale determine the materials’ functions at the macroscopic level. 

Qian Chen is currently an associate professor and Racheff Scholar in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She obtained her PhD degree (2012) from the same department and completed her postdoctoral research at the University of California, Berkeley, under a Miller Fellowship. She became a faculty member in 2015, and since then has received awards for the research in her group, such as the Forbes 30 under 30 Science List (2016), Air Force Office of Scientific Research Young Investigator Award (2017), Sloan Research Fellow in Chemistry (2018), American Chemical Society (ACS) Unilever Award (2018), Hanwha-TotalEnergies International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) Young Scientist Award (2022), and the Soft Matter Lectureship (2023). Her group’s research focuses on imaging, understanding and engineering soft, biological and energy materials at the nanoscale.

Diversity of Excitonic States in Moiré Patterns Formed by 2D Materials
Using state-of-the-art first-principles GW-Bethe–Salpeter equation calculations we discover a rich diversity of excitonic states in large-area transition-metal dichalcogenide Moiré superlattices. We find some excitons of a modulated Wannier character and others of a previously unidentified intralayer charge-transfer character. We uncover a complex interplay involving structural reconstruction, the formation of flat bands and the ordering of excitonic states with distinct characteristics in the Moiré superlattice. By applying these principles, we further demonstrate computational design of Moiré superlattices with desired excitonic properties. These studies, which involve thousands of atoms in the reconstructed Moiré unit-cell, are made feasible for the first time by a novel computational approach: the pristine unit-cell matrix projection (PUMP) method.