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Core Faculty
TMI's core faculty lead cutting-edge research by running their grants through the institute, fostering collaboration and resource sharing.
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Graduate Program
Our Materials Science and Engineering program is one of the best in the nation, and our graduates go on to be leaders in their fields.
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Research
TMI supports interdisciplinary research at UT Austin, with over 100 faculty focusing on clean energy, nanotechnology, and advanced materials using our state-of-the-art facilities.
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MS&E Students Lead Paper on Accurately Predicting How Charged Defects Scatter Electrons
Defects are unavoidable in real materials and can strongly influence properties such as electrical conductivity and electron dynamics. Until now, researchers had to rely on rough approximations to describe the scattering of charged defects, which limits the understanding and predictions of materials’ properties. Yuanyue Liu’s group at TMI of UT Austin recently developed a new way to accurately predict how charged defects in crystals scatter electrons.
MSE Students are Finalists in Collegiate Inventors Competition
Weixin Guan and Yaxuan Zhao, Materials Science & Engineering graduate students with the Texas Materials Institute, have been named one of the five finalist teams in the 2025 Collegiate Inventor Competition. Both students of Dr. Guihua Yu, the team invented AirGel, a cost-effective, water-harvesting device made from hydrogels that pulls water vapor from the air like a sponge.
"Architected Materials" has Dr. Yulan Zhang & Team as Finalists in Gulf Futures Challenge
Dr. Yunlan "Emma" Zhang, a faculty affiliate of TMI with an appointment in Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, and her team - in collaboration with Dr. Xiao Yu from the University of Florida - are one of the 10 finalists for the Gulf Futures Challenge. Out of 164 applications, they were one of the top teams for the Challenge, which offers $50 million to support and fund "impactful ideas that aim to support a safer, more resilient, and sustainable future for the U.S. Gulf Coast Region."
TMI-Led Team Turn Microbubbles into Robotic Microtools
Materials Science & Engineering (MS&E) alum Hyungmok Joh, MS&E graduate student Bin Lian, and TMI faculty member Donglei Emma Fan unveiled a breakthrough in microbubbles, which had been a technological challenge up to now.
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Texas Materials Seminar Series
The Texas Materials Seminar Series features MSE 397 Seminars, TMI Distinguished Lectureships, and TMI Special Seminars, where leading faculty and professionals from around the world share cutting-edge innovations and advancements in materials engineering with our students.
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$12M+
In Grant Funding
20+
Research Patents
10K+
Sq. Ft. of Research Labs
News
Tushar Telmasre Receives Two Awards From 248th ECS Meeting
Tushar Telmasre, a Materials Science & Engineering graduate student, received two awards for his work and presentations during this fall's 248th Electrochemical Society Meeting, held in Chicago, Illinois in October.
Kent Zheng receives MRS Science and Technology Award for Renewable Energy
Assistant Professor Kent Zheng has received Materials Research Society’s (MRS) Nelson “Buck” Robinson Science and Technology Award for Renewable Energy, which recognizes young professionals for their ‘development of novel sustainable solutions for the realization of renewable sources of energy.’
Published by the McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering
Materials Science Student Leads Article on Gas & Safer Sodium-Ion Batteries
Materials Science & Engineering (MS&E) graduate student Chen Liu, along with former MS&E graduate student Dr. Zehao Cui, and their supervisor, Dr. Arumugam Manthiram, has published a paper that digs into the gasses released during Sodium-Ion Battery (SIB) use. Exploring a variety of possible causes and solutions, the researchers studied when and why gas forms inside SIBs.
Dr. Bahadur Publishes on New Approach for Faster Desalination Process
Dr. Vaibhav Bahadur, a professor in Mechanical Engineering (ME) and an affiliate member of TMI, and ME graduate student Shanthanu Katakam, have developed a new method for designing and predicting performance of an emerging desalination technology: Osmotically Assisted Reserve Osmosis (OARO). OARO is an advanced version of well-known reverse osmosis (RO) technology, which uses membranes to separate fresh water from saline water.
Korgel Research Group Makes Glowing Nanocrystals in Record Time
Researchers from Dr. Brian Korgel's research group, including Chemical Engineering graduate student Shea Sanvordenker, have managed to create tiny, brightly glowing crystals at room temperature, in normal air, in just two minutes. Perovskite materials are notoriously unstable and often quickly degrade when exposed to air or moisture, but these crystals keep their structure and brightness for over six months, making them very stable.