Dr. Zi-Kui Liu to Receive 2026 Materials Theory Award

Dr. Zi-Kui Liu, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and Director of the Phases Research Lab, has been selected to receive the prestigious Materials Theory Award from the Materials Research Society (MRS) at the 2026 MRS Fall Meeting in Boston, MA, this November. As part of this acceptance, Dr. Liu will present the talk “The Quest for Predictability - Thermodynamics as a Foundation Across Scales and Domains” at the meeting.

Dr. Liu was selected to receive the award “for impactful contributions in developing predictive theories for materials properties by integrating quantum, statistical, equilibrium and nonequilibrium thermodynamics.”

You can read the official announcement from MRS at https://www.mrs.org/publications-digital-content/news/press-room/press-release/2026/09/16/zi-kui-liu-to-receive-2026-materials-theory-award or the relevant Penn State News article at https://www.psu.edu/news/earth-and-mineral-sciences/story/zi-kui-liu-receives-theory-award-materials-research-society.

Congratulations Dr. Liu!

Congratulations Dr. Yong-Jie Hu!

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 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!

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!

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/