Materials Momentum: Annual Report 2025-26
Table of Contents
- Department Head's Letter
- Passing the Torch: Nancy Sottos
- Nanoscale Precision
- Decoding Alloy Behavior
- Materials Saving Lives
- Materials Meet Biology
- Quantum Leaps
- Next-Level Semiconductors
- Building Better Batteries
- Electronics and Communications
- Materials Built to Last
- The Eltoukhy Family Innovation Lab
- Faculty Honors
- Alumni Recognition
- Student Achievements
- Investing in Materials Science
- Contact Us
Dear Materials Science and Engineering Community:
I write this letter reflecting on a season of change in Illinois materials science and engineering. After more than six years of exceptional leadership, Professor Nancy Sottos has passed the baton to me as department head. I begin by acknowledging what she worked tirelessly to champion: a department at the forefront of its field, with research and curricula that place our department firmly among the very best in the United States and the world. My job is to keep that momentum moving, adding my own energy to our efforts.
Materials science sits at the center of nearly every major technological shift happening right now, from AI-powered materials discovery to materials for next-generation computing and the growing intersection of materials with human health. Our students and faculty lead in these and many other areas, using our state-of-the-art facilities to make discoveries to overcome critical global challenges. As just a few recent examples, Professor Jean-Charles Stinville and his team developed an AI method that maps alloy microstructures in unprecedented detail, dramatically accelerating the design of alloys that can withstand extreme environments found in aerospace and space. Professor Qian Chen and her team developed atomic stenciling, patterning gold nanoparticles with atomic-level precision to create programmable building blocks for electronics and biomedicine. Professor Qing Cao led a team that demonstrated the first monolithic 3D stacking of high-performance silicon circuits, a breakthrough that could extend Moore's law and power next-generation AI hardware. Finally, Professor Hua Wang's lab developed a new mRNA delivery platform that activates the immune system against cancer, achieving remarkable tumor-free survival rates in early mouse models.
Our students continue to shine: eleven materials students were named National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellows this year, part of a record 52 fellowships awarded to Illinois students, the highest total in the university's history.
I have a deep belief in our department's continued ability to amaze and change the world. The curiosity of everyone from the newest student to the most senior faculty member is contagious and underpins so much of what makes our department great. I’m certain the future of materials science at Illinois will continue to be written collectively, the way it always has been here. I'm looking forward to conversations with all of you about how to keep our department at the forefront, and to building on everything Nancy and this community have accomplished together.
Passing the Torch: Nancy Sottos
After more than six years of outstanding service to Illinois materials science and engineering as department head, Professor Nancy Sottos felt the time was right to return her focus to impactful materials research on a full-time basis. In a candid Q&A, she reflected on the accomplishments of her tenure, which positioned the department to continue its tradition of highly-ranked academic excellence, and the challenges ahead for new department head Paul Braun.
Nanoscale Precision
The Department of Materials Science and Engineering is revealing hidden structures and building new capabilities at the nanoscale. Researchers are engineering programmable nanoparticle surfaces for electronics, biomedicine and next-generation materials, while also decoding long-debated molecular interfaces with implications for water desalination and energy storage.
Nanoparticles take new shapes, learn new tricks via stenciling
Illinois researchers led by Qian Chen developed "atomic stenciling," a technique that uses halide ions to mask specific facets of gold nanoparticles so polymers attach only to targeted surfaces, creating precisely patterned "patchy nanoparticles" that can be produced at scale. Published in Nature with collaborators from institutional partners, the method opens new possibilities for self-assembling nanoparticles into complex materials and metamaterials for electronic, optical, and biomedical applications.
Scientists crack the code of nanoparticle edge chemistry, unlocking new materials with protein-like precision
Illinois researchers led by Qian Chen discovered that the slightly chamfered edges of gold nanotetrahedra create narrow, chemically distinct strips that let the group's "atomic stenciling" technique pattern polymers onto these otherwise uniform particles, yielding seven distinct patch designs validated by theory and simulation. The resulting patchy tetrahedra self-assemble into clusters with chiroptical activity despite being built from non-chiral parts, pointing toward programmable nanomaterials for catalysis, sensing and biomedicine.
Multi-state model sheds light on interfacial water behavior
Yingjie Zhang combined 3D atomic force microscopy and specialized Raman spectroscopy to reveal that the graphite-water interface exists in three distinct states, resolving a long-standing debate about the molecular structure of solid-liquid boundaries. Published in Nature Communications in collaboration with the Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid, the three-state model has implications for water desalination, carbon dioxide reduction and other electrochemical applications.
AI model to transform alloy properties prediction and design
Jean-Charles Stinville and colleagues developed machine-learning methods, dubbed “Materials Spatial Intelligence”, that combine accelerated, high-resolution measurements of alloy microstructure, deformation and environmental degradation to capture metal detailed spatial “fingerprints” and predict mechanical properties. The approach enables properties such as strength, fatigue and creep behavior to be predicted orders of magnitude faster, bringing the field closer to fast alloy qualification and autonomous alloy design for extreme environments, such as those encountered in aerospace and energy applications.
How to design fatigue resistance, make metal alloys more durable, sustainable
Illinois researchers led by Jean-Charles Stinville identified a deformation mechanism called "dynamic plastic delocalization," showing that engineering alloy plastic deformation to remain small and distribute uniformly instead of letting it concentrate in localized regions can greatly enhance fatigue resistance. Published in Nature Communications, the findings, achieved through high-throughput automated high-resolution digital image correlation and computational modeling, point toward a new strategy for designing fatigue-resistant metal alloys for demanding applications in transportation, space and energy.
New computational approach solves critical challenge in additive manufacturing materials design
Dallas Trinkle received an Editors' Suggestion from Physical Review Materials for developing a virtual semigrand canonical Widom method that efficiently computes phase diagrams, miscibility gaps and spinodal decompositions for ternary liquid alloys like Fe-Cu-Ni, achieving a remarkable level of precision of Gibbs free energy accuracy within 1 meV. The technique, applicable as a post-processing step to standard molecular dynamics or Monte Carlo simulations of solids or liquids, addresses phase-diagram challenges for liquid immiscible systems relevant to additive manufacturing.
Calculation answers decades-old steel heat treatment problem
Dallas Trinkle and colleagues published the first physical explanation for why magnetic fields slow the movement of carbon atoms through iron, solving a question that has plagued researchers since the 1970s. Published in Physical Review Letters and funded by the DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, the findings could help engineers better control steel heat treatment to lower processing energy costs and CO2 emissions.
Materials Saving Lives
Researchers are turning fundamental materials discoveries into breakthroughs across human health. Teams from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering are developing mRNA and exosome-based cancer vaccines, tagging red blood cells to extend drug delivery and improve cancer immunotherapy, and learning from the natural world to reveal new therapeutic strategies.
Self-adjuvanting polypeptide platform advances mRNA cancer vaccines
Hua Wang and colleagues developed a novel mRNA cancer vaccine platform using a self-adjuvanting α-helical polypeptide that both delivers tumor-targeting mRNA into dendritic cells and activates them, addressing a key limitation of existing lipid nanoparticle-based vaccines. Published in PNAS, the platform achieved 83.3% tumor-free survival in mouse lymphoma models and 33.3% in breast cancer models, compared to 0% for previous mRNA vaccines, and with no notable toxicity observed.
Breast cancer research earns METAvivor grant funding
Hua Wang received a 2026 Early Career Investigator Award from METAvivor for developing exosome-based vaccines that use chemically modified tumor-secreted extracellular vesicles to trigger targeted immune responses against metastatic breast cancer. Building on promising results in lymphoma and melanoma models, Wang's team will next test the approach in breast cancer cell lines and human tumor specimens to advance the platform toward clinical application.
Cancer Center members collaborate to develop red blood cell tagging technology
Colleagues from the Cancer Center at Illinois, including Hua Wang, worked on a team backed by an National Institutes of Health R01 award to develop technology that targets and tags red blood cells, extending drug circulation from hours to weeks and enabling long-lasting imaging contrast agents. The research could transform cancer drug delivery, tumor imaging and image-guided surgery.
Wang lab publishes materials-based cancer vaccine breakthrough
A critical limitation in mRNA cancer vaccines has been overcome thanks to the work of Cancer Center at Illinois member Hua Wang. His team's innovative solution, a macroporous hydrogel platform, actively recruits dendritic cells, greatly enhancing the chance of mRNA-dendritic cell interactions. In preclinical studies, the solution achieved enhanced T-cell activation and stronger antitumor immune responses.
Pioneering methodology to inform osteoarthritis treatment
Rosa Espinosa Marzal, graduate student Kangdi Sun and collaborators revealed poor lubrication in osteoarthritis-like conditions stems from mechanical instability of vesicle-dominated films — not weaker hyaluronic acid anchoring, as previously believed. Published in Science Advances, the findings point to lamellar structures favored by high-molecular-weight hyaluronic acid as a more durable, lower-friction lubrication source, offering a new direction for future osteoarthritis therapies.
Wang unveils promising targeting technology for cancer immunotherapy
Hua Wang's lab discovered that inhibiting an overproduced enzyme called RENBP dramatically improves metabolic glycan labeling efficiency on antigen-presenting cells, solving a long-standing barrier to precisely targeting these cells with immunomodulatory agents. Published in Cell Chemical Biology, the finding could pave the way for more effective, targeted cancer immunotherapies and vaccines.
Anderson co-leads quantum computing materials breakthrough
Research published in Science involving Chris Anderson has identified strontium titanate (STO) as a groundbreaking material for quantum computing and cryogenic technologies. STO's power is immense, showing electro-optic effects 40 times stronger than current leading materials, and the material performs at an excellent level in the ultra-cold temperatures required for quantum computing. The project involved a collaboration with Stanford University.
Stoichiometric crystal shows promise in quantum memory
Researchers led by Elizabeth Goldschmidt and Daniel Shoemaker identified favorable quantum memory properties in NaEu(IO₃)₄, a layered stoichiometric europium crystal whose undoped structure and 2D-layered, environmentally stable bonding make it a promising candidate for photonic integration. Published in Physical Review Letters, the research demonstrated storage times up to 800 nanoseconds. The team aims to extend that duration and isolate a single crystal layer toward building a working quantum memory.
Next-Level Semiconductors
The Department of Materials Science and Engineering is redefining what’s possible in chip design by building silicon circuits upward in three dimensions and integrating lasers directly onto photonic chips. Their work is advancing the technology behind faster computing and next-generation photonics.
A new way to build chips: Sequentially stacking silicon to extend Moore’s law
Qing Cao’s team found a way to stack multiple layers of high-performance silicon circuits directly on top of each other, using a low-heat process that avoids melting metal wiring — a longstanding challenge in chip manufacturing. Published in Nature, this breakthrough could allow computers to keep getting more powerful by building upward instead of just shrinking transistors further, with promising applications for AI and other data-intensive computing.
Graduate student achieves first visible red lasers in silicon nitride chips
Illinois doctoral candidate Yiteng Wang, working with Minjoo Larry Lee and collaborators at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, demonstrated the first visible red lasers grown directly inside silicon nitride photonic chips, successfully bridging silicon nitride and III-V compound materials that were previously difficult to integrate. The breakthrough, supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's LUMOS program, opens new pathways for quantum computing, biosensing and augmented reality technologies.
Building Better Batteries
The Department of Materials Science and Engineering is reengineering batteries from the inside out. Researchers are decoding the hidden molecular structures at battery electrode interfaces and designing solid-state batteries that operate at record-low pressures. These breakthroughs are paving the way for batteries that last longer, charge faster and cost less.
Major step forward reached in pursuit of practical solid-state batteries
Researchers Saeed Moradi, Ben Zahiri and Paul Braun discovered how a cathode's expansion and contraction directly impact anode performance in solid-state batteries, and used this insight to design a battery that operates at just 1 MPa of stack pressure for a thousand cycles — far below the previously needed amount. Published in Nature Communications, the breakthrough addresses a major barrier to commercializing solid-state batteries, which offer higher energy density, faster charging and improved safety over today's lithium-ion batteries.
New battery cathode recycling method slashes costs, lowers environmental impact
Jarom Sederholm and Paul Braun developed a single-step electrochemical process that simultaneously extracts metals from old battery cathodes and deposits them onto new ones, cutting costs by eightfold and environmental impact by over 50% compared to current recycling methods. Published in Advanced Functional Materials, an international patent has already been filed on the technology.
Unique partnership with Nissan seeks EV battery improvements
Paul Braun is collaborating with Yasunori Abe of Nissan to develop scalable, optimized electrode structures that could boost EV battery energy by 25-50%, potentially extending EV range to around 400 miles or significantly lowering battery costs. The partnership highlights Braun's expertise in 3D structural batteries and reflects a broader push to make next-generation battery advances practical at real-world scale.
Electric double layer structure at nucleation sites revealed, providing fundamental insight into electrochemical cells and batteries
Yingjie Zhang’s team used 3D atomic force microscopy to observe how the nanometer-thick liquid layers at electrode interfaces reorganize around surface clusters, following three patterns the researchers call bending, breaking and reconnecting. Published in PNAS, the work addresses a knowledge gap in battery science, since earlier studies modeled only flat, uniform surfaces.
Electronics and Communications
The Department of Materials Science and Engineering is building the foundation for the next generation of electronic breakthroughs, from stacking silicon chips in 3D and imaging heat at the atomic scale to engineering new materials for computing and wireless communication. These advancements are paving the way for faster devices that are more efficient and capable.
Good vibrations: Scientists use imaging technology to visualize heat
Illinois researchers led by Pinshane Huang and Yichao Zhang used electron ptychography to directly observe phasons, a previously hypothetical class of vibrational modes in twisted 2D materials, for the first time, achieving the highest-resolution images ever taken of a single atom. Published in Science, the breakthrough opens the door to using phasons in next-generation electronics that function differently from today's devices, and could also inform better atomic-scale thermal management.
Materials Built to Last
The Department of Materials Science and Engineering is designing materials built for resilience. Nancy Sottos and collaborators have created a new class of recyclable thermosetting plastics that can be broken down and rebuilt across generations. Further, researchers are developing resilient composite structures for manufacturing directly in space as part of the DARPA-backed Mission Illinois effort.
Mission Illinois: In-space manufacturing effort set to launch in late 2026
The Grainger College of Engineering launched the Center for In-Space Manufacturing of Resilient Structures (SpaceMaRS) in March 2025 to advance the manufacturing, assembly and resilience of large structures built directly in space. Nancy Sottos is among the center's core faculty, contributing her expertise to the DARPA-backed Mission Illinois, which will send a composite-manufacturing system to the International Space Station as soon as November 2026 — the first-ever demonstration of fabricating tubular composite structures in orbit.
Beckman researchers develop new strategy for creating recyclable, high-performance polymers
Researchers from Illinois and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, led by Nancy Sottos and including Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology colleagues Sameh Tawfick and Jeff Moore, developed a novel entangled polymer network that achieves the strength of traditional thermosets while remaining recyclable, breaking down and reconstructing consistently across multiple generations. The work opens a new field the team called "generational materials systems," with future potential to reprogram recycled materials for entirely new, targeted properties.
The Eltoukhy Family Innovation Lab
The Department of Materials Science and Engineering is home to a new state-of-the-art maker space designed with student innovation at the forefront. Located on the first floor of the Illinois Materials Science and Engineering Building, the lab includes high-end research equipment and collaborative meeting spaces.
The most exciting thing about the lab is that it has the equipment for both fabricating things and material observation. The 3D printer and laser cutter make it possible for students to turn ideas into prototypes, test designs and improve them. The optical microscope is especially exciting to me because understanding microstructure is just as important as constructing the material.
Estella Wang, 2025-26 Operations Lead
for the Eltoukhy Family Innovation Lab
A dream realized: The Eltoukhy Family Innovation Lab officially opens in 2026
In the spring of 2026, Illinois materials science and engineering experienced a moment years in the making — the unveiling of the Eltoulkhy Family Innovation Lab. Through a generous donation from alumnus Atef Eltoukhy ('78, Ph.D., Metallurgical Engineering) and his wife, Fofa, the materials department has ensured its students have a premier space for project innovation.
Students lead the charge in Eltoukhy Lab management
The inaugural student leadership team for the Eltoukhy Family Innovation Lab was thrilled to have the opportunity to manage the maker space. In collaboration with the materials department, the five-person group handled everything from equipment to training sessions for students.
375
Undergraduate Students (2025-26)
231
Graduate Students (2025-26)
33
Dedicated Faculty (2025-26)
MSA Burton Medal awarded to Pinshane Huang
Pinshane Huang received the 2026 Burton Medal in Physical Sciences from the Microscopy Society of America, a coveted early-career honor for scientists under 40. The award recognized her pioneering electron microscopy methods for studying 2D materials and heterostructures. Her recent advances include electron ptychography that images thermal vibrations in individual atoms and sub-angstrom resolution in electron microscopes without an expensive aberration corrector, which makes cutting-edge imaging more accessible.
Charpagne wins DOE early career award for radical approach to nuclear materials
Marie Charpagne received a U.S. Department of Energy Early Career Research Program award to turn radiation from a threat into a tool, studying how radiation-induced phase separation in high entropy alloys can create protective nanostructures that repair damage as it occurs. The approach could lead to a new class of self-healing materials for nuclear fission and fusion systems.
Anderson named James P. Gordon Memorial Speaker
Chris Anderson received the 2026 James P. Gordon Memorial Speakership from the Optica Foundation, a prestigious honor recognizing research excellence in quantum optics and information. He joins a distinguished line of U. of I. honorees, including Illinois Grainger Engineering's Paul Kwiat, who received the award in 2017.
Qian Chen wins prestigious lectureship honors
Qian Chen's groundbreaking research in the areas of nanotechnology and colloid and surface chemistry earned two awards from the American Chemical Society.
Li earns Victor K. LaMer Award for nanophotonics advancements
Yuanwei Li received the 2026 Victor K. LaMer Award from the American Chemical Society's Division of Colloid and Surface Chemistry, chosen unanimously by the selection committee for her outstanding dissertation research and early-career promise. Her work designs programmable nanoparticle superlattices with targeted optical properties, which could open new pathways for light-based computing and next-generation photonic devices.
Wang wins prestigious international biomaterials lectureship
Hua Wang received the 2026 Biomaterials Science Lectureship from the Royal Society of Chemistry and its journal Biomaterials Science. The winner of this competitive early-career honor is chosen from an international pool of nominees. Wang was recognized for research spanning cancer immunotherapy, immune engineering, metabolic glycoengineering and cancer targeting.
Anderson awarded DARPA recognition for quantum computing breakthrough
Chris Anderson received a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Young Faculty Award for developing strontium titanate (STO) optical modulators, which replace bulky microwave cables with ultra-thin optical fibers to carry quantum information as light signals. The approach targets the heat and wiring limits that stand in the way of scaling cryogenic quantum computers.
Scialog Fellowship honors, travel award earned by Yuecheng “Peter” Zhou
Two significant honors were presented to Yuecheng “Peter” Zhou during the 2025-26 academic year. He was named a Scialog Fellow in the Neurobiology and Changing Ecosystems program, joining about 50 early-career scientists exploring how neural systems adapt to human-caused environmental change. He also received an Early Career Travel Award from the Biophysical Society to present his group’s work at its 2026 Annual Meeting.
Celebrated on Campus
Here at home in The Grainger College of Engineering, we are excited to recognize the faculty who make an impact in our community. This includes not just exciting advacements in research, but also the impact made on students every day in our classrooms.
Q&A: Conversation With Alumna Leading America’s Chip Renaissance
Alumna Rose Castanares (‘88, B.S., Ceramic Engineering), now president of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) Arizona, returned to campus in September 2025 to share her career path and advice with students. She oversees the construction and operation of advanced semiconductor facilities backed by $165 billion in funding, the largest foreign direct investment in U.S. history.
Alumnus makes MIT Technology Review Innovators Under 35 list
Zihao Ou ('20, Ph.D., Materials Science and Engineering), a former student of Qian Chen, was named to MIT Technology Review’s Innovators Under 35 list for a tissue-clearing technique that uses molecules found in snacks like Doritos to make living tissue transparent. The method lets researchers directly visualize internal organs, blood vessels and muscles, and could one day make medical diagnostics cheaper and more accessible.
Honoring Excellence: 2026 Alumni Award Recipients
Illinois materials science and engineering recognized three outstanding alumni at the spring 2026 banquet for their exceptional careers: Cassandra Birrenkott ('12, Ph.D., Materials Science and Engineering) with the Young Alum Award, Elizabeth Opila ('81, B.S., Ceramic Engineering) with the Distinguished Merit Award and Zeba Parkar ('11, Ph.D., Materials Science and Engineering) with the Loyalty Award.
2026 Awards Banquet Celebrates Materials Students
Illinois materials science and engineering was proud to shine a spotlight on the achievements of students at the annual awards banquet, held April 16, 2026 at the Illini Union Ballroom. As successful researchers and innovators, the honorees represent everything our materials community stands for.
Meet Allison Lau: 2026 Knights of St. Patrick Honoree
Allison Lau earned Knights of St. Patrick honors from The Grainger College of Engineering as a result of her dedication as a leader. She managed a team of campus tour guides as director of the ESTAR (Enginering Student Admissions Representative) program, taught ENG 100 as an engineering leaning assistant and took on a high-level role in the Society of Women Engineers on the Illinois campus.
Ph.D. candidate research wins Acta student award
Dhruv Anjaria, a Ph.D. candidate in the research group led by Jean-Charles Stinville, tacked a gap of understanding in the behavior of metals at cryogenic temperatures. His research focused on plastic deformation in a nickel-based superalloy when it is subjected to mechanical stress. Research was featured in the Acta Journals and earned a 2025 Student Acta Award.
ARCS Foundation recognizes doctoral student for quantum materials research
Bobby Kaman, a student of Axel Hoffmann, was honored as a Jones-Whitford ARCS Scholar by the Achievement Rewards for College Scientists Foundation. He was one of ten scholars selected by the organization's Illinois chapter. Kaman plans to use unrestricted grant funds to power an unconventional project demonstrating quantum physics phenomena using arrays of permanent magnets on ball bearings.
Cracking the code: Senior design students deliver for steel industry
A senior design project team partnered with Illinois materials alumnus Drew Kofahl (‘97, B.S., Metallurgical Engineering) of Nucor Corporation and Jean-Charles Stinville to build a program that turns steel microscope images into hard numbers on microsegregation. The students’ tool now helps Nucor evaluate products and resolve customer issues, replacing subjective “good or bad” judgments with quantitative analysis.
Additional Student Awards
Materials Science and Technology (MS&T) 2025 Technical Meeting and Exhibition
Keramos: Illinois student society wins Diamond Chapter and second and third place for mug drop competition.
Isaac Pinkus: Elected Keramos National Student Representative.
Alumnus Aaron Saak supports improvements to Illinois ceramics building
Aaron Saak, who holds a bachelor's degree in ceramic engineering from Illinois, made a generous investment toward the future of materials education when he donated $10,000 to the materials department's Ceramics Building Support Fund. Saak boasts a Ph.D. in materials science and engineering and has enjoyed a successful career spanning decades. He is president and CEO of technology powerhouse Crane NXT.
Sherman family donation backs student trip to premier industry conference
A gift from Robert and Sandra Sherman, known as the Graduate Student Conference Travel Award, allowed graduate student Morgan Scott to attend the Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering (SAMPE) in April 2026. SAMPE is a premier conference in the composites and materials processing field.
Consider joining the materials science alumni association
The Materials Science and Engineering Alumni Association fosters the advancement of the department, The Grainger College of Engineering and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Membership is open to all materials alumni. The department's Alumni Board, elected by members and active since 1992, meets on campus each fall and spring to determine how best to support and guide the next generation of materials scientists.
Give to Materials Science and Engineering
Behind every breakthrough is a student who had the support to pursue it. Your donation to the MatSE Priority Fund helps us open doors, equip labs and build a community where future innovators can succeed.