News

2024

[2024-03] Congratulations to graduate student Huan Liu. Huan was recently offered and accepted the Cecil and Sally Drinkward Postdoctoral Fellowship at Caltech. This exceedingly competitive, engineering-wide fellowship will allow her to interact widely with faculty at Caltech. She will be mentored by former group member Kaushik Bhattacharya, Howell N. Tyson, Sr., Professor of Mechanics and Professor of Materials Science, and Vice-Provost at the California Institute of Technology.

[2024-02] Congratulations to Ankit Kumar for passing his Oral Preliminary Exam, " jumping and exploding phase transformation from the perspective of wave propagation".

2023

[2023-12] Also, just as the year ends, Huan Liu and Richard James launched the company WhirrlEnergy LLC. With help from the Venture Center at UMN -- thanks especially to Sandipan Banerjee, Chris Ghere and students at the Carlson School -- we hope that the commercialization of our design for a vertical axis wind turbine will make a big impact on climate change. Recently, with the help of former postdoc Georgios Grekas, Huan has been applying Machine Learning methods to systematically modify our design to maximize power output.

[2023-11] As 2023 winds down, we were pleased to have a surprise visit from former student Jerry (Zhiyong) Zhang (Ph.D., 2007) , who joined our group meeting just before Christmas. James relived with great pleasure Jerry's experimental discovery of the astonishing role "lambda2 = 1" plays in the determination of hysteresis in solid-solid phase transformations. Jerry has worked in the medical device industry since graduation and is now Principal Engineer at Nordson Medical.

[2023-10] Our group was well represented at the Society of Engineering Science meeting in Minneapolis. Huan Liu (curved tile origami), Ashutosh Pandey (AI-ML to explore compositions of a potential shape-memory ceramic), Shivam Sharma (superconductivity in helical structures) and Kevin Sheehan (equilibrium pathways for origami structures using algebraic geometry) all gave talks. Also, Richard James spoke about the work of Gunjan Pahlani and Shivam Sharma on Objective Molecular Dynamics. This ignited a new collaboration with Vikram Gavini's group (University of Michigan) which had already been smoldering for several years. We were also pleased at the meeting to honor Professor Roger Fosdick's many contributions to mechanics and thermodynamics.

[2023-09] Congratulations to our former Ph.D. student Fan Feng who has accepted an Assistant Professorship at Peking University.

[2023-08] We are happy to report that Shivam, Huan, Ashutosh, Anjan and Kevin all passed the Oral Preliminary Exam during 2023. Notably, Kevin Sheehan is seeking a PhD in Mechanics with a minor in Law, a rare combination to be sure, especially in view of the fact that his focus on the Mechanics side is the development of methods of algebraic geometry for origami design! Thanks to Fionnuala Ni Aolain, Regents Professor and holder of the Robina Chair in Law, Public Policy and Society at the University of Minnesota, and to Phil Buskohl (AFRL) for serving on his committee. We wonder what interesting ideas can emerge from this combination.

[2023-07] We were delighted to have a visit and an outstanding lecture by Sherry Chen. Sherry was joined by her husband Yintao Song, also a former Ph.D. student in our group, and their delightful and precocious daughter. Of course, we also found time to take a drive along the St. Croix River with an outdoor lunch in Marine on St. Croix.

[2023-05] And while we are on the subject of well-deserved success, we have heard that former postdoc Paul Plucinsky (USC) has been awarded a Career grant from the National Science Foundation.

[2023-03] We have just heard the great news that former postdoctoral fellows in our group, Ashley Bucsek (Assistant Professor, University of Michigan) and Ananya Renuka Balakrishna (Assistant Professor, UCSB) have both won Young Investigator Research Program (YIP) awards from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. Congratulations to them!

[2023-01] We are happy to report that Patricia Pop-Ghe has accepted a position with Electric Hydrogen in Natick, Massachusetts. She is delighted to be able to continue her research on sustainability. Previously, her work has included studies of phase transformations for energy conversion and storage in crystalline materials, ionic liquids, and gels.

2022

[2022-11] We enjoyed a fascinating workshop on "Phase Transformations and Energy Conversion" in Minneapolis on November 1-3, with participation from faculty, postdocs and graduate students from Kiel University, the University of Oslo and the Institute of Thermomechanics and Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. The event included the signing of a formal Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Kiel University and the University of Minnesota that "seeks to strengthen the academic and scholarly links and cooperation in areas of research where we share expertise". The ceremony included an engaging presentation by Prof. Dr.-Eng Eckhard Quandt, Vice President for Research, Transfer, Scientific Infrastructure and Digitalization at Kiel, and our frequent collaborator. Many thanks to the UMN Vice President for Research, Prof. Shashank Priya, for supporting this event and for presenting his research at the workshop. And a special thanks to Patricia Pop-Ghe for her inspiring lecture and her great attention to detail as the local organizer. From James' group we also enjoyed lectures on "Exploding and jumping crystals" from Ankit Kumar and "Origami design" from Huan Liu. Also, former member, Sherry Chen (HKUST), presented her recent work on "Compatibility in polycrystals".

[2022-8] A warm congratulations to Dr. Gunjan Pahlani for the successful defense of her thesis, "Objective Molecular Dynamics: An atomistic analogue of exact solutions of continuum mechanics". Gunjan was jointly advised by Tom Schwartzentruber and Richard James. Her research linked molecular dynamics and continuum mechanics in a precise way, and included applications to both fluid dynamics and solid mechanics.

[2022-1] We plan an in-person meeting in Minneapolis with groups from Kiel University, the University of Oslo, the Czech Academy of Sciences, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Caltech on the subject of energy conversion and phase transformations. This loosely follows our 2018 meeting with a similar focus. There is quite limited space, but please contact Richard James if you are interested in attending.

2021

[2021-3] We are delighted to welcome two new graduate students to our group with quite interesting backgrounds: Kevin Sheehan (jointly advised by Dr. Phil Buskohl, AFRL) and Peter Yip (jointly advised by Prof. Tom Schwartzentruber). Peter works near full time at Lockheed-Martin, but manages also full time graduate study. He has a background in the behavior of materials at high strain rates. Kevin is a veteran of the Marines, who also earned a MS in Mathematics (Topic: Algebra). We have great hope mixing concepts from algebra and mechanics in problems of origami design.

[2021-2] The years of Covid were not lost, though we did little traveling. We were pleased to welcome postdoc Dr. Shoham Sen who received his Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon under the direction of Kaushik Dayal. Shoham has a broad background in condensed matter physics, mechanics and applied mathematics. He is working in an unusual area, ripe for development, at the intersection of superconductivity and solid mechanics. We also welcomed graduate students Ashutosh Pandey (AI methods for low hysteresis materials design), Vinitendra Singh (non-equilibrium statistical mechanics of OMD), Kalpesh Jaykar (interaction of light with materials), and Ankit Kumar (exploding and jumping ceramics). Congratulations to Vinitendra Singh and Kalpesh Jaykar, winners of John and Jane Dunning Copper Fellowships (top two grades in AEM on the Written Preliminary Exam). Throughout the pandemic James gave all courses, graduate and undergraduate, in person, with a transparent mask so the students could see his face, with options for in-person remote, or recorded. Nearly all students attended in-person with plenty of spacing between seats.

[2021-1] Early in 2021 we were delighted to welcome Dr. Patricia Lia Pop-Ghe to our group. Patricia received a Ph.D. (summa cum laude) from Kiel University under the direction of our frequent collaborator Prof. Dr. Eckhard Quandt. Working jointly with the groups of Jalan and James, she is seeking methods of energy conversion based on unusual gels which undergo phase transformations with abruptly changing electromagnetic properties.

2020

[2020-1] We are delighted to welcome Shaghayegh Rezazadeh and Giorgos Grekas as new postdoctoral fellows, and Anjanroop Singh and Huan Liu as new graduate students, to our group. Shagha has a Ph.D. in Solid Mechanics from Brown University advised by Pradeep Guduru, and Giorgos earned a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from the University of Crete with Phoebus Rosakis. Anjanroop did his undergraduate studies in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at IIT Roorkee and Huan Liu did her masters in the Department of Mechanics and Engineering Science at Peking University.

2019

[2019-6] The Second International Workshop on the Conversion between Magnetic, Electric, and Thermal Energies (COMET) will be held on the June 6-7 in Oslo, Norway. The aim of the conference is to bring together researchers around the world to the University of Oslo to discuss energy conversion in the small temperature difference regime enabled by the use of phase change materials.

[2019-5] A huge congratulations to our postdoctoral fellows Ananya Renuka Balakrishna, Paul Plucinsky and Ashley Bucsek who have accepted Assistant Professorships at, respectively, USC, USC, and Michigan. Likewise to Amartya Banerjee (Ph.D. 2013) who will move as an Assistant Professor to UCLA.

[2019-5] Congratulations to Ashley Bucsek on winning the Founders Grant from SMST (Shape Memory and Superelastic Technologies). The Founders Grant, funded by Dr. T. W. Duerig, provides $ 50K research funding broadly related to shape memory alloys.

[2019-5] Richard James was awarded a 5 year, $ 3M, Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship on the Mathematical Design of Materials. See here. Outstanding prospective graduate students and postdoctoral fellows with an interest in interdisciplinary theoretical or experimental research in this area are encouraged to write to James "[email protected]"

[2019-4] Our research was well represented at the IUTAM Symposium on Phase Transformations in Shape Memory Metals: Modeling and Applications. Ashley Bucsek, Paul Plucinsky and former group member Sherry Chen gave invited lectures. Frequent visitor and Fulbright Fellow Hanus Seiner also gave an invited lecture.

[2019-4] Gunjan Pahlani gave an invited lecture on "Objective Molecular Dynamics" at the Junior Kinetic Workshop at the University of Wisconsin. See here.

[2019-3] Richard James gave a lecture series on "Supercompatibility and the direct conversion of heat to electricity" at the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences. See the lectures here. See here.

2018

[2018-10] Congratulations to Kaushik Bhattacharya, who was awarded an Outstanding Achievement Award from the University of Minnesota. See under Meetings for details. See photo, award, program.

[2018-9] Richard James gave the Tedori-Callinan Lecture in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics at the University of Pennsylvania. See here.

[2018-7] Congratulations to Fan Feng on the successful final defense of his thesis, "Phase transformation in helical structures: theory and application”. Fan will continue in our group as a Postdoctoral Fellow.

[2018-6] Richard James gave the Hooke Public Lecture at Oxford University on June 25. His topic was "Atomistically Inspired Origami. See here.

[2018-5] Congratulations to Hanlin Gu for passing her oral preliminary examination!

[2018-5] Congratulations to Frank Yu, who was recognized as a Scholar of Distinction in Mathematics by the Minnesota Department of Education.

[2018-5] Congratulations to Gunjan Pahlani, who was awarded the John and Jane Dunning Copper Fellowship in Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics, and passed the written preliminary examination!

[2018-4] Welcome to Dr. Ashley Bucsek who joins our group from Colorado School of Mines as a Postdoctoral Fellow. Congratulations to Ashley on winning the prestigious UMN President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship.

[2018-2] Thanks to Fan Feng, Vivek Dabade, Hanus Seiner, Hanlin Gu and Paul Plucinsky for giving Mechanics Research Seminars. We also had delightful seminars from Professors Liping Liu, Brad Holschuh and John Ball. Click here for more information.

2017

[2017-10] Prof. James gave the Timoshenko Lecture at Stanford University on Oct 12.

[2017-9] Welcome to Dr. Paul Plucinsky who joins our group from Caltech as a Posdoctoral Fellow.

[2017-9] Welcome to Dr. Hanus Seiner from the Institute of Thermomechanics, Prague, who is visiting us for 10 months supported by a prestigious Fulbright Fellowship.

[2017-9] Welcome to Ananya Balakrishna, Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, MIT, who is visiting us, September 26 - October 3. She is presenting a seminar, "Phase field modeling of microstructural evolution" on September 26.

[2017-7] Prof. James gave a lecture on the work of our group on the design of materials at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, supported by the Institute for Advanced Study at HKUST and the HKUST Jockey club.

[2017-4] Congratulations to Vivek for his successful PhD thesis defense!

2015

[2015-4] Vivek Dabade received a Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship from the University of Minnesota to further his research on magnetic hysteresis. Congratulations Vivek!

[2015-1] Xian Chen(Sherry) was invited to give the 61st lecture in the Magnetic Materials and Applications Forum on January 27th, 2015 at the Chinese Academy of Science, Ningbo Institute of Materials Science and Technology.

2014

[2014-12] Congratulations to Yintao Song for his new job at Lattice Engine as a software developer!

[2014-7-29] Vivekanand Dabade passed his preliminary oral exam. Congratulations Vivek!

[2014-7] Richard James gave a lecture series in the Park City/Institute for Advanced Study Summer Mathematics Program on "Phase transformations, hysteresis and energy conversion: the role of geometry in the discovery of materials" (lecture notes in preparation). Fan Feng and Vivekanand Dabade and are also participated in the program, and Vivek was TA for the course.

[2014-7-8] Richard James was awarded the Theodore von Kármán Prize from the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM). This prize is awarded once every 5 years, and James shares the prize with Weinan E (Princeton University). More information can be found at the AEM news.

[2014-5] Xian Chen (Sherry) was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship at the Advanced Light Source (ALS) at Lawrance Berkeley National Laboratory. She will study advanced Laue X-ray micro diffractometer methods and algorithms for phase transforming materials.

2013

[2013-12-17] Congratulations to Amartya Sankar Banerjee for successfully defending his PhD thesis!

[2013-11-20] Yintao Song gave a lecture in the Energy Conversion and Waste Heat Recovery workshop.

[2013-11-15] Richard D. James and László Székelyhidi gave lectures at the symposium in honor of the 2013 Heinz Gumin Prize winner, Stefan Müller, highlighting the two synergistic components of Stefan's work. (pdf)

[2013-10] The paper "Enhanced reversibility and unusual microstructure of a phase-transforming material" appears in Nature. Read the press release by Nature news and watch the Youtube video. Also see coverage in BBC News, Chemistry world (RSC), Materials 360 (MRS), Physics world (IOP), and Discovery news.

[2013-9] Yera Hakobyan is joining Prof. JK Bathe's group at MIT as a postdoc.

[2013-8-27] Congratulations to Yintao Song for successfully defending his PhD thesis!

[2013-7-21] Richard D. James gave a plenary lecture in the Symposium Jean Mandel at École Polytechnique (pdf).

[2013-7-24] Congratulations to Xian Chen for successfully defending her PhD thesis!

[2013-4] Congratulations to Fan Feng, who was awarded the John and Jane Dunning Copper Fellowship in Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics, and passed the written preliminary examination.

[2013-1] Congratulations to Xian Chen, who is awarded the Lawrence A. Goodman Fellowship in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics! (AEM Spotlight)

[2008-5] Liping Liu is the recepient of Best Dissertation Award in Physical Sciences & Medical Science, awared by the Graduate School of the University of Minnesota. (AEM Spotlight)