Materials Science & Engineering

Erin L. Ratcliff is an Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Arizona, with joint appointments in the Departments of Chemical and Environmental Engineering and Chemistry and Biochemistry. She also has a joint appointment with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, CO. Dr. Ratcliff’s research group – the Laboratory for Interface Science of Printable Electronic Materials - is focused on the application of electrochemistry and spectroscopy to better understand the functionality of printable electronic materials, interfaces, and devices. The majority of her research efforts target understanding the structure-property relationships that govern charge transfer kinetics and transport of electronic and ionic species, with connections to energy conversion devices and biosensors.

My research interests are in organic and polymer chemistries that include extensive development of new polymers, polymerization chemistries, polymer characterization, and their applications, such as bio-microfuel cells, membranes, protective coatings, photoresists, sensors, and high surface area adsorbents. Presently, my research includes the development of new polymeric sunscreens, polymeric foams, novel materials and chemistries for 3D printing, synthesis and characterization of porous materials, new polymeric antioxidants, fluorescent polymers and particles, and extensive work in sol-gel science. Keywords: New Sunscreens

Minkyu Kim, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Arizona. He received a M.S. (2006) in Biomedical Engineering and a Ph.D. (2011) in Mechanical engineering and Materials Science at Duke University. During his Ph.D., he worked in the Single-Molecule Force Spectroscopy group led by Prof. Marszalek. He was a postdoc at MIT from 2012 to 2016, and worked in the Bioinspired and Biofunctional Polymers group led by Prof. Olsen. Dr. Kim’s research is focused on the design and development of biopolymer-based functional materials for targeted applications in healthcare and for national defense. Based on his diverse research experiences in the areas of biopolymer nanomechanics, polymer physics and self-assembly, biomolecular engineering and soft materials, his group is currently developing (a) mechanically responsive soft materials that mimic reversible deformability of red blood cell and that can be utilized as targeted drug delivery vehicles for the early treatment of atherosclerosis and (b) nuclear membrane inspired biopolymer materials that selectively filter and neutralize a broad range of bacteria, fungi and viruses for pharmaceutical, food safety, water decontamination and defense applications. In addition to biomaterial development to mitigate atherosclerosis and infectious diseases, Dr. Kim is also interested in addressing how bioinspired design and biosynthesis can be used for the preparation of novel functional materials, how the nanomechanics of folded biopolymers and artificially engineered hyperbranched biopolymer structures can be translated into the mechanics of macromolecular materials that provide new insight into polymer science, and how protein sequences can control parameters that regulate the functional properties of polymeric materials. Lab Website: http://kim.lab.arizona.edu

Pierre Deymier, Ph.D., is interested in a combination of theory, modeling, simulation (from electronic level to the atomistic level to the macroscopic levels) and experimental approaches (from materials synthesis to materials characterization) applied to solving important problems in the science, engineering and technology of materials. These problems focus on the fields of functional materials with function derived from size (e.g. nanomaterials), structure (e.g. metamaterials), and/or composition including materials with biological functionality or materials constituted of living matter (e.g. vitamaterials).

Erica Corral, PhD, essentially dives into three primary areas of research. Her first research area focuses on processing ultra-high temperature ceramic (UHTC) composites and coatings for use as advanced thermal protection systems and to provide oxidation protection of carbon-carbon composites. Secondly, she focuses on developing bulk multifunctional high-temperature ceramic nanocomposites reinforced with single-walled carbon nanotubes for enhanced toughness in ceramics that also have tailored electrical and thermal properties. Last but not least, Dr. Corral also focuses on developing nanocomposite compositions of iron oxide and zirconia for use as hydrogen generation materials. Recent postdoctoral research also focused on investigating the thermomechanical properties of UHTCs, and engineering mechanical and chemical properties of glass-composites for use as reliable seals in solid oxide fuel cells, and ceramic powder processing of magnesium oxide and electrolyte powder for use in thermal batteries. As a graduate student at Rice University, Dr. Corral was an NSF-Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) Fellow, and pioneered the first SWNT-reinforced silicon nitride nanocomposites with multifunctional properties.