News

  • Apr 7
    2021
    We are delighted to announce that Professor Frank Zok has received the UCSB Faculty Senate Outstanding Graduate Mentor Award for 2020-21. This award recognizes sustained and exemplary contributions in mentoring graduate students, both during their time at UCSB as well as in their subsequent careers. Prof. Zok has been at UCSB for 31 years acting as principal advisor to 30... read more »
  • Mar 23
    2021
    Mitchell Bordelon in the Wilson group was honored with the Outstanding Dissertation in Magnetism Award from GMAG today. GMAG is the topical group focused on magnetism in the American Physical Society, and they recognize one to two students per year with this award. Mitchell's dissertation work titled "Magnetic Frustration and Quantum Disorder in Jeff=1/2 Lanthanide-based... read more »
  • Mar 23
    2021
    Professor Irene Beyerlein of the Materials Department and the Mechanical Engineering Department has been named a Fellow of the Materials Research Society (MRS), a distinction that “recognizes outstanding contributions to the field, including research, leadership, and service that have advanced the mission of the materials community world-wide.” Congratulations Irene... read more »
  • Feb 26
    2021
    Steven DenBaars and Shuji Nakamura, UC Santa Barbara professors of materials and of electrical and computer engineering, have been selected as this year’s recipients of the Spirit of Innovation award, a business community celebration of local inventors, their accomplishments and entrepreneurship. “It really is an honor to recognize Shuji Nakamura and Steve DenBaars,” said... read more »
  • Feb 9
    2021
    Two UC Santa Barbara engineers are among the 129 new members worldwide elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) for 2021. Materials and chemistry professor Craig Hawker and Rachel Segalman, chair of the Chemical Engineering Department, join the 106 American and 23 foreign engineers honored this year. Election to the NAE is... read more »
  • Feb 1
    2021
    A Richness of Consequences It’s the late 1980s and Shuji Nakamura(link is external) is on to something. Working in a corporate lab, the Japanese engineer is convinced that if the conditions were just right in his metal organic chemical vapor deposition machine, he might be able to grow the high-quality gallium nitride (GaN) crystals that could make possible the highly... read more »
  • Jan 29
    2021
    The UCSB Materials Department welcomes Professor Xi Dai, to the Department. Prof. Dai is a leading expert in the theory of quantum materials. Prof. Dai's many seminal contributions to the field of topological materials are based on his taking abstract theoretical concepts about topological matter and mapping them onto real world materials. Specifically, he has predicted... read more »
  • Jan 19
    2021
    Researchers in the labs of UC Santa Barbara materials assistant professor Chris Bates and professor and department chair, Michael Chabinyc, have teamed up to develop the first 3D-printable “bottlebrush” elastomer. The new material results in printed objects that have unusual softness and elasticity — mechanical properties that closely... read more »
  • Jan 11
    2021
    Professor Anton Van der Ven has been selected as the 2022 recipient of the TMS William Hume-Rothery Award. The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society (TMS) presents the award to one person per year to honor exceptional contributions to the science of alloys.  It is considered a pinnacle award of TMS.   Professor Van der Ven was cited for "distinguished contributions to... read more »
  • Dec 8
    2020
    In recent years, it has become possible to use laser beams and electron beams to “print” engineering objects with complex shapes that could not be achieved by conventional manufacturing. The additive manufacturing (AM) process, or 3D printing, for metallic materials involves melting and fusing fine-scale powder particles — each about 10 times finer than a... read more »
  • Nov 24
    2020
    Professor Michael Chabinyc, Chair of UC Santa Barbara’s Materials Department, has been elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest general scientific society. This year, AAAS members selected 489 fellows from around the world for their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its... read more »
  • Nov 18
    2020
    Three Materials Faculty among World’s Most Influential Scientists John Bowers, Nobel Laureate Alan Heeger, and Chris Van de Walle, three materials professors in UC Santa Barbara’s College of Engineering, are among the most influential scientists in the world, according to the 2020 Highly Cited Researchers List released by the Web of Science Group, a Clarivate Analytics... read more »
  • Nov 2
    2020
    Three UC Santa Barbara scientists are among the one hundred fifty women nationwide who have been invited to the 2020 Rising Stars in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) Workshop. Esmat Farzana, a postdoctoral researcher in the Materials Department, Yating Wan, a postdoc in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department... read more »
  • Oct 12
    2020
    The most significant advances in human civilization are marked by the progression of the materials that humans use. The Stone Age gave way to the Bronze Age, which in turn gave way to the Iron Age. New materials disrupt the technologies of the time, improving life and the human condition. Modern technologies can likewise be directly traced to innovations in the materials... read more »
  • Aug 26
    2020
    Researchers partner with national labs in DOE-funded collaborations to expand research in quantum sciences. The nation is poised to usher in a new era of knowledge and innovation in the quantum sciences, thanks to a new crop of federally-funded collaborations that bring together national labs, research centers, university and industry.   UC Santa Barbara... read more »
  • Aug 25
    2020
    Researchers uncover unusual glassy behavior in a disordered protein. When UC Santa Barbara materials scientist Omar Saleh and graduate student Ian Morgan sought to understand the mechanical behaviors of disordered proteins in the lab, they expected that after being stretched, one particular model protein would snap back instantaneously, like a rubber band... read more »
  • Aug 17
    2020
    Professor Craig Hawker receives the 2021 Kathryn C. Hach Award for Entrepreneurial Success, a national award of the American Chemical Society. The citation for the award is: "In recognition of Dr. Hawker's innovative leadership in creating, developing, and commercializing revolutionary polymer-based therapeutics and personal care products through multiple successful start... read more »
  • Aug 14
    2020
    UCSB has announced the appointment of our Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Dr. Belinda Robnett, effective September 1, 2020, pending approval by the UC Office of the President. Dr. Robnett comes to UC Santa Barbara from UC Irvine, where she was the Inaugural Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Diversity in the School of Social... read more »
  • Jul 30
    2020
      RESEARCH RAMP UP: College of Engineering Overview: https://engineering.ucsb.edu/information-research-ramp   Building Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) EII (Engineering II): /sites/default/files/docs/resources-forms/covid_phase_iii_engineering_2_building_access_6-17-20.pdf ESB (Engineering Sciences Building... read more »
  • Jul 29
    2020
    NSF awards UC Santa Barbara, UCLA $23.7 million for collaboration focused on using natural building blocks to make new materials. Synthetic polymers — think plastic and its chemical cousins — are among the foundations of modern life. The ubiquity of such petroleum-based materials has everything to do with their combination of strength, flexibility and chemical inertness,... read more »
  • Jul 28
    2020
    “A watched pot never boils,” as the saying goes, but that was not the case for UC Santa Barbara researchers watching a “pot” of liquids formed from DNA. In fact, the opposite happened. Recent advances in cellular biology have enabled scientists to learn that the molecular components of living cells (such as DNA and proteins) can bind to each other and form liquid droplets... read more »
  • Jun 25
    2020
    Materials scientists work on the semiconductors that could transform how we disinfect surfaces, spaces, personal protective equipment — even the air we breathe The COVID-19 outbreak brought with it an almost immediate and unprecedented national shortage of personal protective gear needed by health-care workers and others seeking to prevent the spread of the virus. N95... read more »
  • Jun 22
    2020
    For UC Santa Barbara materials scientist Omar Saleh and synthetic biologist Enoch Yeung, there is no machine or material more inspiring and innovative than living tissue, no process more fascinating than life. “The most biologically important thing that happens in the cell’s nucleus is that there are genes, the genes get read and turned into proteins and you get all of... read more »
  • Jun 15
    2020
     Mayela Aldaz Cervantes receives the University Award of Distinction this spring. The award recognizes students who have contributed greatly to the quality of life by providing unselfish service to others within a particular area.    Advised by Mehrabian Distinguished Professor of Materials Carlos G. Levi, Aldaz Cervantes is a PhD candidate in the Materials Department.... read more »
  • Jun 9
    2020
    In Solidarity: Black Lives Matter Friday, June 5, 2020 Over the past week, our nation has been convulsed in response to the appalling reality of yet another black individual being killed by a white police officer. The UC Santa Barbara College of Engineering stands with those in our community and around the world who are hurting and frustrated in the wake of... read more »