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UCLA MSE Newsletter - Summer 2025

Dear colleagues and friends,

Welcome to the second edition of the UCLA MSE Newsletter for the 2024–25 academic year!

As we move into the heart of 2025, we continue to celebrate the growth, achievements, and vibrant spirit of our department. This issue highlights Professor Ya-Hong Xie’s retirement, new faculty appointments, groundbreaking research, community milestones, the 2025 Commencement ceremonies, and reflections from our graduating students. We also hosted two Town Hall meetings this spring - one with undergraduate students (May 29, 2025) and another with graduate students (June 23, 2025) - to continue fostering transparency and engagement.

Thank you for being part of the UCLA MSE community. We look forward to building an even brighter future together.

Warm Regards,

Prof. Yang Yang

Chair, Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Summer News

Congratulations to our graduates!

Congratulations to our newly graduated materials engineers, masters, and PhDs! Our department graduated 26 PhDs, 40 MS, and 36 undergraduate in the 24-25 AY cycle (see all graduates in the Commencement Program). We wish you all the best in your next steps!

Prof. Ya-Hong Xie's retirement

Prof. Ya-Hong Xie is retiring after 26 years of dedicated service. While we will miss Ya-Hong, we are wishing him a happy retirement and lots of great experiences in this next stage of his life! Prof. Xie sends a heartfelt message to the MSE community:

A Difficult Farewell

After 26 years of service in the department of materials sciences & engineering, I find it more difficult than I expected to finally say goodbye and retire.

Looking back, it has been a quarter of century of challenges, hard work, and of course loads of happy memories. Our department, being the smallest in the School of Engineering, is a close knit family with its collegial faculty, supportive staff, and the forever young student body who are always eager for knowledge. I remember vividly the warm welcome and the encouragement I received from my colleagues when I first joined the department helped wipe away my worries about my teaching ability. Coming from an industrial environment, working side-by-side with young men and women has been such a rewarding experience. It helps keep us young at heart. Another critically important component of the supportive environment is our staff. They work diligently and are always ready to help. Under the leadership of Prof. Yang Yang, Dean Alissa Park and with the experience of senior faculty members together with the energetic young faculty members, I have no doubt that our department is on the right track to achieve new heights on all fronts.

To me, it has been a true privilege to be a member of the department. Professor is the best job one could hope for with its freedom to pursue scientific curiosity and interest that no other job offers. Seeing our students’ growth in knowledge and maturity and knowing that we played a role in all these is the best feeling of satisfaction.

Best wishes to you all.

- Ya-Hong Xie

UCLA MSE welcomes a new faculty member

Md Shafayat Hossain joined UCLA Samueli as an assistant professor in Materials Science and Engineering in July 2025. Previously, he was a lecturer and postdoctoral associate in Physics at Princeton University. His interdisciplinary research spans materials science, physics, and electrical engineering. Shafayat focuses on quantum science through two main thrusts: (i) using scanning tunneling microscopy and transport techniques to study electron interactions and topological phases in quantum and moiré materials and (ii) on sustainable quantum devices, exploring room-temperature topological materials for energy-efficient technologies through AI, spectroscopy, and transport. He earned his Ph.D. from Princeton and a bachelor’s from Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology (BUET). His work has led to discoveries such as the first room-temperature, ambient-pressure quantum state, and several elusive quantum phases like the topological excitonic insulator, with publications in Nature, Nature Physics, Nature Materials, and Physical Review Letters. Shafayat is passionate about outreach, having developed STEM programs for visually impaired students and serving as an APS Career Mentoring Fellow.

Research News

Breakthrough extends fuel cell lifetime beyond 200,000 hours

UCLA researchers design a fuel cell using platinum, graphene-protective layer, and porous carbon support that can push the catalyst lifetime beyond 200,000 hours. The study led by Prof. Yu Huang, published in Nature Nanotechnology, beats by US DOE target for 2050 by seven-fold, and is a significant step towards the adoption of fuel cell technology in heavy-duty transportation. [read more]

On-scalp printed EEG with e-tattoos

Researchers from UCLA and UT Austin, co-led by Prof. Ximin He, have developed spray-on electronic tattoos that can record brain activity as effectively as traditional EEG electrodes while being more comfortable and longer-lasting. These e-tattoos can be printed directly onto the scalp using a microjet printer and eliminate the need for gels, caps, or wires, improving their accessibility and wearability. [read more]

Extracting hydrogen and critical materials from seaweed

UCLA researchers, co-led by Prof. Aaron Moment and Dean Alissa Park, developed a high-temperature alkaline process to convert wet Sargassum seaweed into hydrogen using a nickel catalyst. They are also working on recovering rare earth elements from the residue via molten salt electrolysis and acid washing, aiming for scalable, sustainable valorization of marine biomass. [read more]

Physical intelligence in soft robots

Prof. Ximin He's group published a review article on physical intelligence in smart soft materials, featured in the special issue "Embodied Intelligence" of Science Robotics. The UCLA researchers discuss the emerging contributions of mechanical logics and autonomous soft robots in the era of AI from a viewpoint of advanced materials acting in the physical world rather than the digital one. [read more]

Controlling radiant flows outdoors to keep humans safe in extreme heat

An interdisciplinary team of UCLA researchers led by Prof. Aaswath Raman demonstrated an efficient and effective way of keeping humans safe and comfortable outdoors in extreme heat: radiant cooling. In particular, they showed that visibly transparent, IR-reflective materials enabling open structures that could serve as a model for future heat shelters and bus stops. Published in and featured on the cover of the June issue of Nature Sustainability, this work was funded by a $1M grant from the UCLA Sustainable LA Grand Challenge for a "Heat Resilient LA". [read more]

More News

MSE has successfully completed the UCLA Academic Senate Program Review. The next review is scheduled for AY 2031–32.

Professor Alexander Balandin is co-organizing a symposium, One-Dimensional van der Waals Quantum Materials, at the Materials Research Society (MRS) Fall Meeting in Boston in December 2025. This symposium will cover the emerging field of one-dimensional (1D) van der Waals (vdW) quantum materials, which exhibit quantum, strongly correlated, and topologically related properties with high potential for enabling novel device functionalities.

Professor Daniel Schwalbe-Koda is co-organizing a symposium, Integrating Machine Learning and Simulations for Materials Modeling, at the Materials Research Society (MRS) Fall Meeting in Boston in December 2025. This symposium will cover the intersection of classical materials modeling and data-driven approaches across scales and applications, with a focus on machine learning.

Professor Aaswath Raman is co-chairing a conference, Solar, Lighting and Thermal Photonics (SOLITH), at the Optica Advanced Photonics Congress in Marseille, France in July 2025. This conference covers optics and photonics for solar, lighting and emerging thermal applications.

Professor Alexander Balandin is leading a Guest Editors team for the special topic issue of the Applied Physics Letters on Thermal Properties of Graphene and Carbon Materials – From Physics to Applications in Thermal Management. The special topic issue will reflect the recent progress in understanding the physics of heat conduction in graphene and carbon materials and capture the exciting developments in the field, which is transitioning from fundamental physics to commercial applications in thermal management.

Departmental Awards

Congratulations to all students who received awards this academic cycle!

Engineering Achievement Award for Student Welfare Recipients

Randy Chen, Doctor of Philosophy, Spring 2026
Zoe Gianna Wareza Monterola, Bachelor of Science, Spring 2025
Claire Josephine Murphy, Bachelor of Science, Spring 2025
Isabella Natarelli, Bachelor of Science, Spring 2025

Outstanding Doctor of Philosophy Degree Recipients
Yang Liu, Materials Science and Engineering, Winter 2025
Yuan Zhu, Materials Science and Engineering, Fall 2024

Outstanding Master of Science Degree Recipient

Xuke Fu, Materials Science and Engineering, Winter 2025

Outstanding Bachelor of Science Degree Recipient

Kyle James Kotanchek, Materials Engineering, Spring 2025

Departmental Scholars—Bachelor of Science, Master of Science

Isabella Karoline He, Materials Engineering/Materials Science and Engineering, Spring 2025
Kyle James Kotanchek, Materials Engineering/Materials Science and Engineering, Spring 2025
Leon Qibin Sit, Materials Engineering/Materials Science and Engineering, Spring 2025

MRS Events and Updates

MRS End-of-Year BBQ

This year, the MSE department’s annual End-of-Year Barbeque Event featured our department’s incredible staff and retiring Professor Ya-Hong Xie. Students and professors eagerly lined up for barbecue hot dogs and burgers while socializing at the final event of the year.

Later in the evening, a jam session was hosted by Professor Aaron Moment (guitar) and a few graduating seniors: Hugo Onghai on melodica, Ryan Rusch on keyboard, and Mason Possinger on alto saxophone. The MSE Undergraduate Class of 2025 were also presented with their Senior Superlatives and accompanying certificates.

In tradition with End-of-Year Barbeque, the MRS Chapter at UCLA bids farewell to the MSE department’s graduating Class of 2025. Whether you’re graduating with a BS, MS, or a PhD, congratulations on your tremendous accomplishments, and we wish all the best for what the future holds for you!

Opinion: I Found The World So New

UCLA MSE Grad Arami Chang '25 shares about the feeling of graduating, making the most of college life, and reflections for the future [read more]

© 2025 UCLA Materials Science and Engineering. All rights reserved.
Newsletter editor: Prof. Daniel Schwalbe-Koda