Skip to main content

Materials Science & Engineering News

Daniel Rhodes
October 10, 2025

Army recognizes Rhodes with a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers

Daniel Rhodes, an assistant professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has been awarded a prestigious Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) from the U.S….

Jason Kawasaki
October 8, 2025

Kawasaki named a Moore Foundation Experimental Physics Investigator

Jason Kawasaki, an associate professor in materials science and engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has been named a 2025 Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Experimental Physics Investigator. Selection to the program is a prestigious…

October 7, 2025

With major U.S. investment, UW-Madison leads effort to advance abundant fusion energy for all

The University of Wisconsin-Madison is leading a major multi-institution project to develop and test a critical fusion technology—research that will directly benefit commercial fusion power plant developers. A $19 million Fusion Innovative Research Engine (FIRE)…

Yuan Ping and PhD student Andrew Drieder
September 24, 2025

In advanced materials, new quantum method sees what others can’t

Lead halide perovskites are a class of materials that have shown great promise for use in solar panels, semiconductors, LEDs and other optoelectronic devices. One of the most impressive features of these materials is their…

Students in MS&E 362: Synthesis and Characterization Lab
September 18, 2025

Alumni generosity upgrades lab experience for MS&E undergraduates

In the fall 2024 semester, a group of freshmen in MS&E 260: Materials Experience—a hands-on introductory course for MS&E majors and the materials science “curious”—designed a final class project to recycle metals from discarded circuit…

Assistant Professor Fang Liu and PhD student Qianli Xing
September 15, 2025

Enabling an electric future, researchers create electrode-agnostic electrolyte

In developing a versatile new electrolyte, a team of University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers has taken the next step toward a more efficient, energy-dense battery that could supplant today’s ubiquitous lithium-ion batteries. This new battery type—an…

Dylan Barber
September 3, 2025

Focus on new faculty: Dylan Barber is polarizing polymers for batteries and soft robots

From electric cars and smart watches to portable hedge trimmers and pacemakers, lithium-ion batteries power the modern world, literally. But these ubiquitous rechargeable batteries have a major drawback: Volatile liquid electrolytes inside them can explode…

Supersalt graphic
August 15, 2025

Machine learning tool accelerates molten salt design for next-gen energy systems

An international team of researchers led by University of Wisconsin-Madison materials engineers has developed a machine learning-based tool called “SuperSalt” that accurately simulates and predicts the properties of molten salt systems. The tool will help…

Ying Wang working in her lab
July 24, 2025

New probing technique maps properties in quantum materials

University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers have developed a new technique to map the quantum phase diagram in a promising class of quantum materials called Weyl semimetals by tracking “hotspots” in an unusual quantum phenomenon called the…

Postdoctoral scholar Sujan Subedi
June 17, 2025

New wave: UW-Madison researchers are creating a path to high-performance terahertz technologies

Many of the technological advances of the last century are the result of researchers unlocking different types of electromagnetic radiation, the waves—like x-rays, microwaves and infrared radiation—that carry energy throughout the universe. There’s one bit…