MRS Award Recipients—Lightning Talks and Panel Discussion

Hosted by the MRS Awards Committee. Moderated by Lia Stanciu, Chair, Awards Committee

A single celebratory session for award talks will take place on Wednesday morning. During this event the following MRS Award recipients will present well-formed ideas on their respective research. Following the presentations, award recipients will also serve as panelists to answer various questions from the audience.

Abstract

At the heart of materials science studies for next-generation materials is an idea that we want to be studying real materials doing real things, often in real devices.  In practice, this presents a number of key data analysis and interpretation challenges because it implies we are studying ever more complicated samples, often in complex heterogeneous environments and in time-resolved operando setups, and we are interrogating our data for more and more subtle effects such as microstructures and evolving defects and local structures. Advanced data analysis algorithms and software are essential for the success of this enterprise.  Of particular interest is the study of nanomaterials and materials structure on different length scales.  In this talk I will describe various developments that leverage latest data acquisition and analysis techniques, sometimes powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), that reveal how materials behave on different length-scales and sometimes also time scales.  The materials studied include materials for sustainable energy, environmental remediation, and cultural heritage studies, and techniques range from spatially resolved x-ray and electron nanostrucuture studies and neutron diffraction and scattering.

Biography

Simon Billinge has more than 25 years of experience developing and applying techniques to study local structure in materials using x-ray, neutron and electron diffraction including the development of novel data analysis methods including graph theoretic, artificial intelligence and machine learning approaches. He earned his PhD degree in materials science and engineering from the University of Pennsylvania in 1992. After 13 years as a faculty member at Michigan State University, in 2008 he took up his current position as Professor of materials science and applied physics and applied mathematics at Columbia University and held a joint position of Physicist at Brookhaven National Laboratory between 2008 and 2022.

Billinge has published more than 350 papers in scholarly journals. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the Neutron Scattering Society of America, a former Fulbright and Sloan Fellow and has earned a number of awards including the 2022 Distinguished Powder Diffractionist Prize of the European Powder Diffraction Conference, the 2018 Warren Award of the American Crystallographic Association and being honored in 2011 for contributions to the nation as an immigrant by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. He is the 2025 laureate of the Gregori Aminoff Prize of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. He is Section Editor of Acta Crystallographica Section A: Foundations and Advances. He regularly chairs and participates in reviews of major facilities and federally funded programs.

Abstract

Engineered biomaterials that integrate advances in polymer chemistry, nanotechnology and biological sciences have the potential to revolutionize medical therapies. Khademhosseini develops personalized solutions using bioprinting, microfluidics, and advanced hydrogels to create functional tissues for treating organ failure, cardiovascular disease and cancer. By mimicking patient-specific microenvironments, his work enhances therapeutic efficacy and enables more predictive disease models. These strategies bridge fundamental science with clinical applications, paving the way for next-generation regenerative therapies and biomedical devices. In this talk, Khademhosseini will discuss how engineering innovations are transforming medicine through precision biomaterials and microengineering.

Biography

MRS Impact Award

The MRS Impact Award honors outstanding individuals who have displayed excellence in areas of science communication, education, advancing diversity, mentoring, or community engagement, which reflect the Society’s pursuit to advance materials science and technology to improve the quality of life.

Abstract

Advances in materials science are driving breakthroughs in noninvasive diagnostics, enabling early disease detection through innovative nanomaterial-based sensors. This talk highlights the development of 1D, 2D, and 3D nanostructures for detecting volatile biomarkers from breath and skin, transforming health-care accessibility. AI-driven smart materials and self-healing interfaces are now integrated into wearable devices, providing real-time health monitoring for diverse populations. These innovations bridge the gap between fundamental research and global health-care applications, offering scalable solutions for early intervention. By merging cutting-edge materials science with medical technologies, noninvasive diagnostics are reshaping global health and precision medicine.

Biography

Hossam Haick, Full Professor and Dean of Undergraduate Studies at the Technion, is a leading expert in nanotechnology and noninvasive diagnostics. He earned his PhD degree in chemical engineering from the Technion in 2002, followed by postdoctoral fellowships at the Weizmann Institute and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). His research has led to nano-array devices, flexible sensors and volatile biomarker analysis, resulting in over 420 publications, 52 patents and five startups. He has coordinated multiple EU-funded consortia and received prestigious awards, including the Knight of the Order of Academic Palms, the Humboldt Senior Research Award, the Electronic Components and Systems (ECS) Innovation Award, and the Michael Bruno Memorial Award.

Abstract

The magnetoelastic effect, also named as the Villari effect and discovered in 1865 by Italian experimental physicist Emilio Villari, is the variation of the magnetic field of a material under mechanical stress. This effect is usually observed in rigid metal and metal alloys with an externally applied magnetic field and has been ignored in the field of soft bioelectronics for the following three reasons: the magnetization variation in the biomechanical stress range is limited; the requirement of the external magnetic field induces structural complexity and bulky structure; and there exists a gigantic mismatch of mechanical modulus up to six orders of magnitude difference between the rigid magnetoelastic materials and the soft human tissues. In 2021, we discovered the giant magnetoelastic effect in a soft solid polymer system, later in a liquid permanent fluidic magnet, which paves a fundamentally new way to build up intrinsically waterproof and biocompatible soft bioelectronics for diagnostics, therapeutics and energy applications.  Our group at UCLA is currently pioneering this research effort of harnessing giant magnetoelastic effect in soft systems for personalized health care and sustainable energy.

Biography

Jun Chen is currently an associate professor in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of California, Los Angeles. His research focuses on soft matter innovation for health care and energy. With a current h-index of 125, Chen was identified to be one of the world’s most influential researchers in the field of Materials Science on the Web of Science. Among his many accolades are the V.M. Watanabe Excellence in Research Award, Shu Chien Early Career Award, Materials Research Society (MRS) Outstanding Early-Career Investigator Award, Hisako Terasaki Young Innovator Award, Advanced Materials Rising Star and Materials Today Rising Star Awards, among others.

MRS Postdoctoral Award

The MRS Postdoctoral Award recognizes postdoctoral scholars who are showing exceptional promise.

MRS acknowledges the Jiang Family Foundation and MTI Corporation for their generous contribution to support this award.

Abstract

Implanted biomaterials and devices face compromised functionality and efficacy in the long term owing to foreign body reactions and subsequent formation of fibrous capsules at the implant–tissue interfaces. To alleviate the formation of the fibrous capsule at the implant–tissue interface, various approaches have been developed, including drug-eluting coatings, hydrophilic or zwitterionic polymer coatings, active surfaces and controlling the stiffness and/or size of the implants. However, despite recent advances, the mitigation of fibrous capsule formation for implanted biomaterials and devices remains an ongoing challenge in the field, highlighting the importance of developing new solutions and strategies. Here, we demonstrate that an adhesive implant–tissue interface can mitigate fibrous capsule formation in diverse animal models, including rats, mice, humanized mice and pigs, by reducing the level of infiltration of inflammatory cells into the adhesive implant–tissue interface compared to the nonadhesive implant–tissue interface.

Biography

Jingjing Wu is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, after completing her PhD degree at Huazhong University of Science and Technology and Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg,where her main research focus is on basic science and translation of soft material technology to clinic and biomedical applications. Wu’s research interests are expansive in the field of (1) fundamental mechanical and biological interactions between biomaterials and biological tissues, especially bioadhesion-driven suppression of fibrotic encapsulation of tissue–implant interfaces; and (2) development of novel soft materials with focus on (i) repair, healing and regeneration of injured tissues; and (ii) long-term functional interfacing between materials and the human body.