ICDS Seed Grant: Zentropy-Based Insights into Short-Range Order and Mechanical Properties in High Entropy Alloys

The Institute for Computational and Data Science has provided funds for this project as part of its Rising Researcher Collaborations Funding Opportunity, with Nigel Lee-En Hew as the Rising Researcher and Shun-Li Shang as the PI.
https://www.psu.edu/news/institute-computational-and-data-sciences/story/institute-computational-and-data-sciences-awards-56
https://icds.psu.edu/funding/rising-researchers/funded-projects/

ICDS Seed Grant: Building Digital Twins of Personalized Models for Alzheimer’s Disease Prevention and Treatment using ZENN

The Institute for Computational and Data Science has provided funds for this project as part of its Rising Researcher Collaborations Funding Opportunity, with Shun Wang as the Rising Researcher and Zi-Kui Liu as the PI.
https://www.psu.edu/news/institute-computational-and-data-sciences/story/institute-computational-and-data-sciences-awards-56
https://icds.psu.edu/funding/rising-researchers/funded-projects/

𝗘𝘂𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗻 𝗦𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗔𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗰𝘆 - 𝗧𝗼𝗽𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗺 "𝗔𝗱𝘃𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗱 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗕𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗸𝘀 𝗮𝘀 𝗘𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗙𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗦𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗹𝗼𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻"

The Euopean Space Agency is creating a new Topical Team lead by CREST - Centre for Research and Engineering in Space Technology. As a team member, Dr. Liu will implement zentropy and inverse design based on zentropy-enhanced neural networks (ZENN).

Ricardo Amaral awarded the Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School Scholarship

Congratulations to Ricardo on receiving the 2024-25 Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School Scholarship! This award recognizes outstanding graduate students who demonstrate exceptional academic achievement and dedication, which aligns with the Fox Graduate School’s mission of academic excellence and interdisciplinary impact.

James Saal Named ASM International Fellow

Congratulations to Dr. James Saal for being elected a Fellow of ASM International—An honor awarded “For pioneering contributions and leadership in developing computational tools, databases, and AI-driven methods in materials science, leading to innovative and impactful industrial applications.”

Yong-Jie Hu (PhD, 2016): First child + NSF Career Award!

Congratulations to Yong-Jie Hu (PhD, 2016) and his wife Yuanting Chen on the birth of their first child, Avelyn, in January 2025. We also extend our heartfelt congratulations to Yong-Jie for receiving the prestigious NSF CAREER Award, which funds his research proposal on dislocations in bcc chemical complex alloys.

Adam Krajewski Awarded Grant from the foundation for applied thermodynamics

Congratulations to our postdoctoral researcher, Adam Krajewski, on receiving a 38000 SEK grant from the Foundation for Applied Thermodynamics (Stiftelsen för Tillämpad Termodynamik, STT). The STT grant supports research and development of thermodynamic databases and software that benefit human life, work, and the environment in different applications. Congrats, Adam!

Brandon Bocklund Promoted!

After completing his postdoctoral work, Brandon Bocklund has been promoted to Research Scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the Materials Science Division. He continues to work on advancing tools for materials design along with tools for uncertainty quantification and propagation in Calphad modeling.

Richard Otis + Proteus Space

Richard Otis has joined California startup Proteus Space, Inc., as its Principal Computational Engineer. In this role he is leading a team of engineers building digital twin engineering technologies for spacecraft. Separately, Richard is continuing in his role as co-lead for the PyCalphad software project and section editor for the Calphad journal.