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UCLA MSE Newsletter - Fall 2025/Winter 2026

Dear colleagues and friends,

As we move forward into a new calendar year, I am pleased to share continued momentum across the UCLA Materials Science and Engineering community. In a period of evolving and uncertain funding landscapes, our department has responded with resilience and strategic focus. These challenges have created opportunities for us to diversify our funding sources, deepen industrial collaborations, and expand engagement with private foundations. At the same time, we continue to enhance our undergraduate teaching laboratory through generous gifts from our alumni, strengthening hands-on learning experiences for our students.

This newsletter highlights recent departmental developments, including academic milestones, research progress, student achievements, and community activities that bring us together. We are also actively conducting faculty searches in key strategic areas, including semiconductors and materials for extreme conditions, as part of our commitment to sustained excellence in both research and education. I am deeply grateful to our faculty, staff, students, alumni, and partners for their dedication and support as we continue building a vibrant, resilient, and forward-looking department.

Happy Holidays!

Warm regards,

Prof. Yang Yang

Chair, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, UCLA

Winter News

UCLA MSE welcomes a new faculty member

Nathan Szymanski joined UCLA Samueli as an assistant professor in November 2025. He was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Minnesota, combining generative AI, quantum chemistry, and topological analysis to design new materials for energy applications. He received his Ph.D. in materials science and engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, where he worked at the intersection of computational modeling and experimental synthesis. He also holds dual bachelor’s degrees in physics and applied mathematics from the University of Toledo. Szymanski’s research is focused on redesigning how inorganic materials are synthesized and processed for energy storage and conversion. His group integrates density functional theory, machine learning potentials, and kinetic Monte Carlo simulations to model reaction kinetics, using in-situ characterization to provide direct feedback for these models. He has contributed to the development of an autonomous laboratory for solid-state synthesis and X-ray diffraction, combining robotics with AI-driven decision-making to advance materials discovery. His work has led to the design of improved lithium-ion cathodes and a more sustainable method for converting lithium ores directly into battery-ready precursors, streamlining the path from raw materials to finished devices. Welcome, Nathan!

The Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering is receiving applications for an open rank tenure-track faculty position. This year’s search will prioritize candidates with experience/skills in semiconductor synthesis and device manufacturing, and materials for extreme conditions (including aerospace materials). [application link]

Celebrating Awards

Aaswath Raman elected Fellow of APS and Optica

MSE Associate Professor Aaswath Raman was elected Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) for his “fundamental advances in thermal photonics and the development of radiative cooling, including the first demonstration of daytime radiative cooling and its integration into energy systems.” Raman was also named a 2026 fellow of Optica, an international scholarly society for the science of light, and a 2025 Rising Star of Light, as a winner of a worldwide competition held by the journal Light: Science & Applications. [read more]

Yu Huang receives 2025 Global Energy Prize

MSE Professor Yu Huang has been awarded a 2025 Global Energy Prize for “innovations in the field of catalyst development, which significantly improve the profitability, durability, and performance of fuel cells.” She is the first UCLA faculty member and the first woman to win this award in the non-conventional energy category since the prize was established in 2003. [read more]

Alexander Balandin Appointed to Fang Lu Endowed Chair in Engineering

MSE Distinguished Professor Alexander Balandin has been named to hold the Fang Lu Endowed Chair in Engineering. Balandin is widely recognized for his pioneering research across materials science, nanotechnology, electronics, phononics and optical spectroscopy. [read more]

Four MSE faculty among Clarivate's list of most influential researchers

Out of the 9 UCLA engineering professors named to the 2025 list of world’s most influential researchers, 4 are affiliated with MSE:

Bruce Dunn, distinguished professor of materials science and engineering, bioengineering and holder of the Nippon Sheet Glass Company Chair in Materials Science

Yu Huang, professor of materials science and engineering and holder of the Traugott and Dorothea Frederking Endowed Chair

Richard Kaner, distinguished professor of chemistry and biochemistry, materials science and engineering and holder of the Dr. Myung Ki Hong Endowed Chair in Materials Innovation

Kang Wang, distinguished professor of electrical and computer engineering, materials science and engineering and holder of the Raytheon Company Chair in Electrical Engineering.

Prof. Yu Huang was named on the 2025 list under two categories, materials science and cross-field. The 2025 list includes more than 6,800 researchers representing just one one-thousandth of the global research community. Each selected researcher has published multiple papers that ranked in the top 1% by peer citations during the previous decade. [read more]

Research News

Europium complex harvests ambient energy to power minirobots

Inspired by bacteria Salmonella, which uses dynamic ion-binding coordination for continuous motion, a recent work published in Angewandte Chemie by MSE Prof. Ximin He's group presents self-oscillating motors leveraging molecular-level dynamic bonding to harvest trivial ambient energy and power macroscopic, self-sustained behavior. [read more] [interview]

New stretchable light-emitting material holds promise for photon-based devices

UCLA researchers, including MSE Prof. Yu Huang demonstrated a new type of light-emitting material expected to be suitable for photonics based on semiconducting molybdenum disulfide and Nafion, a polymer used in fuel cells. The result was a large-area, stretchable membrane that emitted bright light at low cost and high manufacturability. These findings were published in JACS. [read more]

Sargassum seaweed for rare earth element recovery

A work from the group of Prof. Aaron Moment describes the use of sargassum seaweed for recovery of rare earth elements. The innovative approach offers a waste-to-resource pathway for a circular economy of critical materials. This work was published recently at ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering. [read more]

UC awards $8M to help solve fusion energy challenges

The University of California, through its Initiative for Fusion Energy, has awarded $8 million in multicampus research grants, in partnership with UC-managed national laboratories, to fund research aimed at accelerating progress toward fusion energy. MSE Prof. Jaime Marian is one of the recipients of the award within the Center for Fusion Energy–Materials and Diagnostics for Extreme Conditions (MDeC). [read more]

Developing AI methods to automate chemical labs

For two years in a row, Prof. Daniel Schwalbe-Koda has received an award from the Scialog program for collaborative research in AI-supported automation of chemical laboratories. The initiative was created by RCSA in 2010 to support research, intensive dialogue, and community building to address scientific challenges of global significance. [read more]

More News

MSE alumna Jacklyn Zhu '24 receives the Edward K. Rice Outstanding Bachelor's Student Award

MSE alumna Jacklyn Zhu received the Edward K. Rice Outstanding Bachelor's Student Award, which honors students with outstanding achievements in their fields. Zhu graduated magna cum laude in 2024 with a bachelor of science in materials engineering and cum laude with a bachelor of arts in European languages and transcultural studies. She has also participated in numerous research internships and served as the president of the Materials Research Society at UCLA. [read more]

PhD candidate Zahra Nataj receives an Outstanding Presentation Award at WINDS 2025

Zahra Ebrahim Nataj, a PhD candidate in Prof. Balandin’s research group received one of the four Outstanding Presentation Awards at the Workshop on Innovative Nanoscale Devices and Systems (WINDS 2025) (Hawaii, December 2025). Zahra’s talk was entitled “Probing Spin-Lattice Interactions in NiPS3 Through Brillouin-Mandelstam Spectroscopy of Surface Acoustic Phonons”.

Top 25 Bruinventions of the 21st century (so far)

Among the many inventions that spun off UCLA, many are related to materials. UCLA selected Prof. Yang Yang's record-breaking dual-layer solar cell, which converts 22.4% of incoming energy from the sun, as one of the most influential inventions from UCLA since 2000. [read more]

UCLA Samueli Premieres Film on Taiwan’s Role in the Global Chip Race

UCLA Samueli and MSE co-hosted the premiere of Taiwan's first feature-length documentary on the island's rise from a 1970s policy gamble to the world's semiconductor powerhouse. The film and a fireside chat described the human stories behind the industry’s technological and materials science breakthroughs. [read more]

MRS Events and Updates

From Lego to Carbon Fiber: A UCLA Engineering Student Turns Curiosity Into Makerspace Creations

Third-year materials engineering student Cooper Pitts recounts finding a creative home in the Engineering Makerspace and innovating in projects, classes, and career directions. [read more]

Celebrating the holidays

During the festive season, MSE students, faculty, and staff gathered for Thanksgiving and year-end holiday celebrations. MRS at UCLA also organized multiple events during the Fall quarter, from a monochrome party to ice-blocking down the campus hills.

Opinion: Live the Questions Now

Materials engineering student Chloe Cheng writes about non-linearities in the journey to explore curiosities and passions, and pursue interdisciplinary interests within the context of materials science. [read more]

Opinion: How Should Academic Institutions Address Artificial Intelligence?

Materials engineering student Sungju Kang discusses the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in undergraduate education and studies, and examines the implications of its continued use. [read more]

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