With the fall semester underway, I wanted to take this opportunity to formally introduce myself as the director of the Materials Science and Engineering Program. I have had the pleasure of meeting and interacting with many of you over the years, as I have been a faculty member of the program going back to its founding.

A team of physicists at CU Boulder has solved the mystery behind a perplexing phenomenon in the nano realm: why some ultra-small heat sources cool down faster if you pack them closer together. The findings, which appeared recently in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), could one day help the tech industry design speedier electronic devices that overheat less.

Karan Dikshit is a fourth-year PhD candidate in the Materials Science and Engineering Program studying under Assistant Professor Carson Bruns in the Emergent Nanomaterials Lab. He is also affiliated with the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering and ATLAS. He is originally from Pune, India.

With new leadership and several high-profile faculty joining the program, Materials Science and Engineering at CU Boulder is poised to build on past successes to grow into a world-class hub for research and education in the field.

Dylan McNally is a second-year graduate student in the Materials Science and Engineering Program studying under Associate Professor Chunmei Ban in the Ban Surface Science and Engineering Research Group. He is originally from Loveland, Colorado.

CU Boulder is a founding partner of a major National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center (STC): the Center for Integration of Modern Optoelectronic Materials on Demand (IMOD). The center represents a research partnership spanning 11 universities led by the University of Washington.

Professor Michael McGehee and Professor Ivan Smalyukh are the principal investigators on two Department of Energy-funded projects to improve building technologies and energy efficiency in the built environment. Their projects are among 44 nationwide research projects selected as part of the Building Technologies Office’s competitive Building Energy Efficiency Frontiers & Innovation Technologies funding program.

Assistant Professor Mija Hubler and Melvin E. and Virginia M. Clark Professor Al Weimer are collaborating on linked Department of Energy-funded projects to capture and repurpose carbon products from fuel sources into materials for concrete bricks. They hope to reduce pollution while also making stronger, more resilient building materials that require less maintenance and repairs over time.

Professor Ivan Smalyukh is one of the winners of the 2021 Langmuir Lectureship Award for his innovative work in the colloid and surface chemistry fields. Smalyukh will deliver a special presentation at the 2021 ACS Fall National Meeting, as will Professor Deborah Leckband of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, who also earned the honor.

Associate Professor Wil Srubar recently participated in the "Pride in Stem: A Conversation about Research, Mentorship and Advocacy" panel, a National Science Foundation Distinguished Lecture. The panel included NSF staff from the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, the LGBTQ+ and Allied Employee Resource Group and fellow NSF CAREER awardees who have demonstrated committment to the LGBTQ+ community through their work.