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Donald W. Hamer Professor Pascal Bellon has been named the interim director of the Materials Research Laboratory, effective Aug. 16, 2026. He will replace Professor Paul Braun, who is set to become department head of materials science and engineering, in this role. 

Samyak Chordia, a fifth-year PhD student in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, will give a presentation at the fall 2026 American Chemical Society meeting in Chicago. He earned a Graduate Student Travel Award from the ACS Division of Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering (PMSE), which provides partial travel support for him to attend. 

Associate Professor Nicola Perry was named to the 2026-27 Emerging Research Leaders Academy as part of a cohort of 16 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty. Participants will take part in monthly workshops to hone leadership traits, acquire team science skills and learn to effectively communicate their research.

Materials science and engineering undergraduate student Hailey Pohl was part of a project named a finalist in the NASA Space to Soil Challenge, which asked teams to develop or describe innovations for small satellites. Her collaboration with Dibyansh Choudury was titled, "LOOP: Lightweight Onboard Observation Pipeline for Small Satellites." 

Materials graduate student Xuchen Ren, with undergraduate researcher Alexandra Kuhlman-Schneider, found that adding chloride ions during electropolymerization of PEDOT:PSS thin films shifts their electrochromic response and reshapes voltage sensitivity across wavelengths. Using chloride-free films, the team achieved a voltage detection sensitivity of 2.8 µV, demonstrated through prolonged, label-free optical recordings of electrical and mechanical activity in developing embryonic chicken hearts, published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry B. The findings point toward more sensitive, stable and non-perturbative voltage sensors for cardiac research, drug screening and organ-on-chip systems.

The Illinois Polymer Maker Lab, Beckman’s newest core facility, has installed its first piece of equipment. The lab will allow researchers to design polymer-based materials and capture digital materials data, which they can plug into artificial intelligence models.