We are delighted to share that Dr. Yong-Jie Hu (PhD, 2016) will be promoted to Hoeganaes Endowed Associate Professor with tenure at Drexel University, effective September 1, 2026. Congratulations to Yong-Jie on this important career milestone!
Phases Research Lab at CALPHAD 2026
Three PRL members will be presenting their work at the upcoming CALPHAD 2026 conference in Québec City, Canada. If you are planning to attend the conference, be sure to check out their talks:
On Monday, June 8:
Dr. Zi-Kui Liu (O1.1): “A Unified Thermodynamic Framework: From Equilibrium and Nonequilibrium to Zentropy, Cross Phenomena, and Artificial Intelligence”
Luke Myers (O1.2): “Recursive entropy in thermodynamics: establishing the statistical-physics basis of the zentropy approach”
On Tuesday, June 9:
Alexander Richter (O2.4): “Thermodynamic Modeling of Pure Elements with Quantitative Model Selection and Uncertainty Quantification using PyCalphad and ESPEI”
Luke Myers Interning at 3M this Summer
Luke will be joining 3M this summer as an intern in Maplewood, Minnesota, working in the Corporate Research Analytical Laboratory.
During the internship, Luke will help develop a digital rheometer twin for accurately predicting nonlinear viscoelastic deformations.
Congratulations for the opportunity and good luck with your internship Luke!
Dr. Shun-Li Shang Awarded David J. Green International Faculty Development Fund
Research professor Dr. Shun-Li Shang has been awarded the David J. Green International Faculty Development Fund by the Department of Materials Science and Engineering in support of his travel for the 54th International Conference on Computer Coupling of Phase Diagrams and Thermochemistry. Congratulations Dr. Shang!
Luke Myers Selected for MATSE Department Travel Award
Graduate student Luke Myers has been selected to receive a MATSE departmental travel award in support of his attendance at the CALPHAD 2026 conference. Congratulations!
Luke Myers Awarded PA Space Grant
Graduate student Luke Myers has been awarded the NASA PA Space Grant Consortium Graduate Fellowship in support of his ongoing PhD research at Penn State. See his post on LinkedIn for more information.
Luke Myers Awarded Larry Kaufman Scholarship
Graduate student Luke Myers has been awarded the Larry Kaufman Scholarship by CALPHAD Inc. in support of his upcoming trip to the CALPHAD 2026 conference in Québec City, Canada. Congratulations Luke!
Alexander Richter Awarded Grant from the Foundation for Applied Thermodynamics
Graduate student Alexander Richter was awarded a travel grant by the Foundation for Applied Thermodynamics (Stiftelsen för Tillämpad Termodynamik, STT) in support of his upcoming trip to the CALPHAD 2026 conference in Québec City, Canada. Congratulations Alexandar!
Congratulations!
Let us congratulate Sanaa and Attia for their son "Dody" who was born on Friday March 13, 2026.
New Plastic Material for Energy Storage
A recent Penn State news article featured the combined efforts of Penn State researchers and their partners at Brookhaven National Laboratory and North Carolina State University in developing a novel polymer that significantly outperforms conventional capacitors. Phases Research Lab was happy to contribute to the understanding of the two-phase miscibility gap in this project. The work was recently published in Nature and features PRL’s Dr. Zi-Kui Liu as a co-author.
Dr. Nigel Hew Awarded OPA Travel Award for TMS 2026
Postdoctoral researcher Dr. Nigel Hew was awarded an Office of Postdoctoral Affairs Travel Award to present at the TMS 2026 conference. For those attending the conference, Nigel will be giving an oral presentation titled “Zentropy: Implementing recursive entropy for first-principles thermodynamics” on March 16, 2026, from 2:50 PM - 3:10 PM in the Hilton - Sapphire GH location. Congratulations Nigel, and good luck!
ZENN Featured in LinkedIn Posts
The ZENN methodology has been recognized in LinkedIn posts from Penn State Research and the Penn State Department of Materials Science and Engineering following the recent Penn State news post on the method.
ZENN Applications for Research Across Disciplines
A recent Penn State News article on ZENN for AI sheds light on the broad applicability of the method across various disciplines. This methodology was recently featured in PNAS.
ZENN featured in the PNAS Showcase on Kudos!
The PNAS Showcase on Kudos has featured our recent article ZENN: A thermodynamics-inspired computational framework for heterogeneous data–driven modeling, which introduces ZENNs (Zentropy enhanced neural networks). This work resulted from an interdisciplinary collaboration between our group and the mathematicians Dr. Shun Wang and Dr. Wenrei Hao.
The code used in this publication can be found on GitHub.
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/
Richard Otis announced as newest member of the TMS board of directors!
Richard Otis will serve as the TMS Public and Governmental Affairs Director. We are pleased to see that you will contribute your brilliant perspective to TMS!
Zentropy for transparent electro-optic ceramics
A recent PSU News article highlights a recent publication using zentropy theory to predict finite temperature behavior of transparent ferroelectrics.
Congratulation to Leon for passing his qualifying Exam
Congrats Leon! This is an important milestone, and we look forward to further success in your research.
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).