Tianrui (Terry) Zheng, a Materials Science & Engineering graduate student working with Dr. Guihua Yu, is a recipient of the 2026-2027 UT Chevron Energy Graduate Fellows Award from UT's Energy Institute.
Engineers at The University of Texas at Austin have developed a jacket that harvests drinking water directly from the air. The technology could benefit anyone who spends much time in areas without easy access to drinking water, from hobbyist hikers, campers and runners to agricultural workers, emergency responders and soldiers.
Published by UT News.
Yuebing Zheng was awarded seed funding through the University's Office of the Vice President for Research, Scholarship and Creative Endeavors. The 'New Directions in Research' grants are one time payments that give faculty an opportunity to obtain proof-of-concept or pilot data for future, larger grants.
A wearable bioelectronic device increased REM sleep in real-world trials, without invasive surgery or medication.
Published by UT News.
A new article in Advanced Energy Materials offers both a model that can help predict how much energy a battery may release when it overheats and an example of collaborate work done at the Texas Materials Institute. Led by Aryton Yanyachi, a graduate student in the Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering, other contributors include Materials Science & Engineering students Siddhartha Nanda and Wenlong Li, TMI staff scientist Steve Swinnea, UT faculty Yijin Liu, Hadi Khani, and Ofodike Ezekoye, and Donal Finegan from the National Laboratory of the Rockies.
Two New Articles from Bahadur Research Group look at electricity, CO2 hydrates
Vaibhav Bahadur, an affiliate of TMI and an Associate Professor in the Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering, has published two papers with his group. The first, "Oil-impregnated densified wood veneer with high electrical insulation enabled by nanosized oil channels," looks at using densified natural wood instead of paper-based insulation that is currently used in the power grid. The second article, "Ultrafast formation of carbon dioxide hydrates from mixtures of carbon dioxide and nitrogen gases," examines how much nitrogen and saltwater could be used to still efficiently form hydrates.
MacDonald and two colleagues were honored for “foundational work that established the field of twistronics.”
Published by the College of Natural Sciences.
Messenger RNA lipid nanoparticles (mRNA-LNPs) are important parts of ongoing vaccine and therapeutics research, but their use is often limited due to effects of long-term frozen storage and the thawing process. Meysam Mohammadi-Zerankeshi, a student in the Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering and under the supervision of TMI-affiliate Alexander Marras, along with collaborators from other Cockrell departmens and Eli Lilly and Company, have found that the type and concentration of storage buffer used for long-term storage strongly influenced the freeze-thaw process for mRNA-LNPs.
Yuebing Zheng, with PI Ibrahim Volkan Isler from the Department of Computer Science, have been awarded funding as part of the Department of Energy's Genesis Mission initiative. The project, "SAFE-BOLT: Safety-Assured Force-aware Execution for Bimanual Operations on Lab Tools", aims to develop robotic lab assistants capable of the physical labor most labs require.
Deji Akinwande and Kenneth Liechti, two TMI-affiliated researchers, have published a perspective on the reliable and consistent transfer of atomically thin 2D materials. Published in Nature Nanotechnology, they argue that "bridging the gap between academia and foundries" could be the best way forward.
Materials Science and Engineering graduate student Tianrui (Terry) Zheng, under the supervision of Guihua Yu, has published research in Advanced Materials introducing a biphasic electrolyte architecture that combines the strengths of water-based (aqueous) and organic-based electrolytes for long-duration, high-rate zinc metal batteries.
TMI Affiliate Juan Guan, an Assistant Professor of Chemical Biology & Medicinal Chemistry in UT's College of Pharmacy, was awarded the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development Award for 2026. The award supports early-career faculty "who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization." Congratulations!
Zhantao Chen, an Assistant Professor in Mechanical Engineering and a TMI-affiliate, has published an article on an AI tool in Nature Machine Intelligence. The article used AI to help researchers in ways that would assist in experimental tasks that are often labor-intensive and tiresome.
Mehmet Kepeneki Awarded Student Paper Prize
Mehmet Kepenekci, a PhD student in Mechanical Engineering and under the supervision of TMI-affiliate Chih-Hao Chang, was awarded the Student Paper Award at the 2026 Optica Advanced Photonics Congress for his paper "Effect of Pillar Geometry on Optical and Mechanical Properties of Sapphire Subwavelength Nanopillar Arrays." Congratulations Mehmet!
Deji Akinwande, along with groups from Singapore, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Austria, Spain, and Germany, have published an article in Nature Materials focused on leakage current across 2D materials. They found that surface texture matters and that multi-layer and monolayer 2D materials act differently. They also created an equivalency between hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) and silicon dioxide (SiO2), which can be used to predict the future performance of 2D-based nano-electronic devices.
Zhantao Chen, an Assistant Professor in the Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering and a TMI-affiliate professor, was part of a team from SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory that recently published an article in Nature Machine Learning. The team "developed a new method that uses AI to compress data without erasing subtle details that are valuable for experiments but lost in conventional file-compression methods."
Originally published by Chris Patrick at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.
Koo Research Group has Strong Showing at National Space & Missile Materials Symposium
The Koo Research Group recently went to the National Space and Missile Materials Symposium. The conference was held from June 22th to 25th in the city of Columbia, SC. Attendees from the group included Professor Joseph H. Koo and graduate research assistants Samantha Bernstein, Steven Kim, Remy Feru, Akshar Mashruwala, and undergraduate research assistants Courtney Bui and Sean Hong. Industry collaborators also presented work including Rebecca Zulch from Northrop Grumman Corporation, and Chantel Camardese from Toray Advanced Composites.
The group presented a total of 7 oral presentations and 6 posters on their research. The conference was an excellent presentation and networking opportunity for the group. Topics featured at the symposium were development of advanced materials for space as well as computational modeling of materials subjected to extreme environments.
Academy for Materials and Nanoscience
This summer, the Texas Materials Institute (TMI) organized the Academy for Materials and Nanoscience for the third consecutive year. The four-day summer program is designed to introduce high school students to the exciting fields of materials science, nanomaterials, and nanoscience through a combination of lectures, hands-on laboratory activities, and campus experiences.
This year’s academy welcomed 16 Texas high school students in grades 10–12. Six students were from Austin, while the remaining participants came from Coppell, Houston, Southlake, Tomball, Katy, and Spring.
Throughout the four-day program, students participated in a series of lecture-style presentations and hands-on activities in TMI’s laboratories. They gained firsthand experience with nanofabrication processes in the TMI cleanroom, materials synthesis in TMI’s wet laboratories, and advanced materials characterization techniques, including Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM).
The students also had the opportunity to explore the University of Texas at Austin campus and learn about cutting-edge materials research by visiting the research laboratories of Dr. Brian Korgel and Dr. David Mitlin in GLT. Beyond laboratory research, participants received an introduction to the UT Austin admissions process through a presentation by UT admissions staff.
The academy also provided students with an opportunity to interact with graduate students in the Materials Science and Engineering program during an organized lunch, giving them a chance to learn about graduate education, research experiences, and career paths in materials science and engineering.
The Academy for Materials and Nanoscience will be offered again in June 2027, continuing TMI’s commitment to introducing the next generation of students to materials science, nanotechnology, and research.
Summer Student Events
Thank you to all the Materials Science & Engineering students who came out to our summer lunches! Hopefully you were able to take a short break from your research and enjoy good food with good people!
Fall 2026 MSE 397 Seminar Series
"Charge switching lipid nanoparticles deliver nucleic acids without triggering inflammation"
Wednesday, September 2 at 12pm
EER 1.528
"2D Aerogel-based Sensors for Environmental and Health Monitoring"
Wednesday, September 9 at 12pm
EER 1.528
Summer 2026 Graduates
Congratulations to our Summer 2026 graduates on reaching this important milestone! We are proud to celebrate their achievements and wish them success in what’s ahead!!
Welcome Back Ice Cream Social
Upcoming Events & Announcements
Graduate School September Events
- Resume Writing Workshop: Sept. 2 | 12-1:30 pm | FAC 2.142
- CV 101 Workshop: Sept. 10 | 12-1:30 pm | FAC 2.142
- LinkedIn Workshop: Sept. 16 | 1-2:15 pm | Virtual
- Cover Letter Workshop: Sept. 22 | 12:30-1:45 pm | FAC 2.142
- Archer Graduate Fellowship Program Info Session - STEM: Sept. 23 | 12:30-1:30 pm | FAC 2.142
- Grad School 101 Kickoff Carnival: Sept. 23 | 4:30-7:30 pm | FAC 2.142
- OSPOSIUM Open to Work Event: Sept. 24 | 8 a.m.-1:00 p.m. | TACC Main Auditorium
- Interviewing Workshop: Sept. 29 | 2-3:15 pm | FAC 2.142
- Ace Your Tech Interviews: Sept. 30 | 5-6 p.m. | Virtual
Fall 2026 Academic Dates
- Labor Day - No Classes: September 7
- Last day to Drop Classes without Permission: September 9
