Members

C. Cem Tasan

Thomas B. King Associate Professor of Metallurgy
BSc. MSc. METU/Turkey, 2005
PhD. Eindhoven University of Technology/Netherlands, 2010
Postdoc and group leader, Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung/Germany, 2016

Cem started his academic journey in Ankara, in the beautiful campus of METU, moved to rainy Eindhoven for a Ph.D. degree on micro-mechanics of damage, and to classy Dusseldorf for more fun in alloy design. These days he is training to be a professional chess player, while spending his free time at MIT supervising a bunch of amazing researchers.

Kathy Simons

Administrative Assistant

Johanna M. Wilcox

Financial Coordinator

Jinwoo Kim

Postdoctoral Associate

BSc. PhD. Seoul National University/South Korea, 2016

Jinwoo has been working on investigation of microstructural change and mechanical behavior of materials in hydrogen environment. He loves design, machining and fabrication of devices. He is very good at taking jump photos in an ‘emergency exit’ pose.

Hyunseok Oh

Postdoctoral Associate
BSc. PhD. Seoul National University/South Korea, 2018

Hyunseok has been working on developing new alloys. Hyunseok likes playing games. He also likes betting on the properties of new alloys.

Onur Guvenc

Postdoctoral Associate
BSc. METU/Turkey, 2002
MSc. PhD RWTH-Aachen/Germany, 2019

Onur is working on new alloys and processing routes for easier reuse, reform and remanufacture extending material’s lifecycle. In his spare time, he trys to figure out the best viewing order for Star Wars.

Michela Geri

Postdoctoral Associate
B.S. Energy Engineering, University di Bologna/Italy, 2008
M.S. Energy Engineering, University di Bologna/Italy, 2010
Ph.D. Mechanical Engineering, MIT/USA, 2019

Michela is originally from a small town in the center of Italy. At the moment, she enjoys teaching Mechanics and Materials and working on thermo-mechanics problems that can help move towards a more sustainable future. She loves cooking (and eating), drinking tea and watching classic movies.0

Menglei Jiang

Graduate Student
B.Sc. Tsinghua University/China, 2015
M.Sc. MIT/USA,2018

Menglei is working on healable metal alloy design and trying to apply this metallic coating at a functional coating layer to detect and heal damages to increase materials lifetime.

Jackie Cho

Graduate Student
B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology/USA 2014.
M.S. in Materials Science and Technology, MIT/USA 2017

Jackie is working on developing alloys with self-resetting microstructures to heal damage as it happens. While she has been freezing living in the north in the winter, she enjoys getting to play football and volleyball in warmer weather.

Jiyun Kang

Graduate Stduent
BSc./MSc Pohang University of Science and Technology/South Korea, 2013

Jiyun has been very enthusiastic in investigating plasticity and damage mechanisms of titanium alloys under the different and complex strain paths. She travels regularly, and her favorite place these days is a reciprocal space.

Haoxue Yan

Graduate Student
BSc. in Materials Science and Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute/USA, 2017

Haoxue’s research focuses on understanding hydrogen-defect interactions by developing in-situ electron microscopy methods. She grew up in China but found multiple home-away-from-home within the United States. Haoxue enjoys playing board games, climbing fake rocks, and spinning on ice.

Gianluca Roscioli

Graduate Student
B.Sc. Politecnico di Milano/Italy, 2014
M.Sc. Double degree Politecnico di Milano & Politecnico di Torino/Italy, 2016

Gianluca has been building new setups to be used inside a Scanning Electron Microscope to uncover how metals wear down. His goal is to find the constitutive laws of this process and use them to design new wear-resistant alloys. Originally from Rome, Italy, Gianluca enjoys sailing and raising tropical fish in his 55 gallon aquarium.

Shaolou Wei

Graduate Student
B. Eng. Physical Metallurgy and Materials Science, Harbin Institute of Technology/China, 2017

Shaolou is working on microstructural evolution and phase transformations for advanced complex concentrated alloys development. He enjoys swimming, reading, and listening to classical music in his spare time.

Krista Biggs

Graduate Student
BSc. in Materials Science and Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute/ USA, 2018

Krista works on in situ tests of sheet steels used for automotive applications. This has given her the opportunity to spend many hours focusing on sample preparation and testing in the SEM- focus that, in her spare time, translates to rowing marathons on the rowing machine!

Maria Ronchi

Graduate Student
BSc. in Materials Engineering, Brown University/ USA, 2019

Maria is investigating high-throughput casting methods to better design high entropy alloys, one goal being to improve the problem of hydrogen embrittlement. She takes every chance she can get to explore the outdoors, but also loves reading fantasy novels and playing board games.

Julian Rackwitz

Graduate Student

B.S. in Engineering Science, Technical University of Berlin, 2017
M.S. in Engineering Science, Technical University of Berlin, 2020

Julian works on novel approaches to characterize the damping and fatigue properties of alloys. His goal is to design a high-strength high-damping steel. He centers his day around coffee and loves exploring different cultures.”

Tim Fountain

Graduate Student
B.S. in Metallurgical Engineering, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology / USA, 2014.

Tim is studying the design of alloys whose mechanical properties are enhanced through strain-induced phase transformation. In his free time Tim loves to be outdoors, stay active, and attend concerts of any musical genre, but his favorite is heavy metal!

Daniel Moriarty

Graduate Student
B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, U.S. Naval Academy, 2020

Dan’s research investigates properties of novel alloys. He enjoys hiking, reading, cooking, and training for triathlons!

Lucas Marden

UROP

Lucas is a first year planning to major in Materials Science and Engineering. He is researching low-energy and cost-efficient methods for recycling of sheet metals using roll bonding. In his free time, he enjoys practicing gymnastics, skiing, and hiking.

Ghassan Aljawi

UROP

Ghassan is a class 24′ from Saudi Arabia interested in material science and mechanical engineering. He loves listening to Lady Gaga on his daily night walks.