Wulff Lecture

DMSE’s Professor C. Cem Tasan discussed the adventures of the lightest and most mischievous of all elements, hydrogen, in metals. Tasan highlighted the various problems hydrogen causes, such as hydrogen embrittlement, when tiny hydrogen atoms penetrate metals, causing them to crack. He also presented the potential solutions discovered through experimentation.

Northwestern University’s Sossina Haile, a DMSE alum, focused on advancing renewable energy through hydrogen-based fuel cells. She proposed a sustainable process, extracting pure hydrogen from ammonia. Emphasizing ammonia’s advantages, including existing pipelines and high transmission capacity, Haile highlighted cost-effectiveness, non-toxicity, and earth abundance.

DMSE alum William Woodford, co-founder and CTO of startup Form Energy, discussed advancing multi-day energy storage to combat climate change. He emphasized material science’s role in decarbonization and presented Form Energy’s iron-air battery, aiming to revolutionize global energy storage and decarbonize various industries.

Professor John Mauro, of Penn State’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering, discussed the historical and future significance of glass. Highlighting its role in technology and society, he introduced LionGlass, a sustainable glass technology, addressing the environmental impact of glass production by reducing carbon emissions and eliminating the need for carbonate batch materials.

Professor Angela Belcher, of the Department of Biological Engineering and DMSE, explored harnessing organisms’ 500 million years of inorganic material expertise. She discussed research to evolve organisms through DNA sequences with the goal of designing advanced technologies—smarter, adaptable, and eco-friendly—addressing challenges in electronics, medicine, energy, and the environment.

DMSE’s Professor Michael Cima covered three projects at the intersection of materials and medicine. He discussed a comprehensive drug form screening system, insights from paramagnetism applied by T2 Biosystems in molecular diagnostics, and an innovative use of medical-grade silicone to measure oxygen levels in hypoxic tumors during brachytherapy.

In her book, The Alchemy of Us, Ainissa Ramirez examines inventions—clocks, steel rails, copper communication cables, photographic film, and more—and reveals how they shaped the human experience. In her Wulff Lecture, she shares stories of how technologies have influenced our world.

How does materials science and engineering impact electronics design and performance? Alloys play a critical role in Apple products. In this lecture, DMSE alum and Apple director of materials engineering Jim Yurko shared insights on alloy design and implementation at Apple and successful efforts to reduce the environmental impact of these alloys.

DMSE alum Sam Shames shared the transformative journey of a DMSE undergraduate from student to entrepreneur, co-founding Embr Labs. The discussion delved into the materials science underpinning his startup’s heating and cooling wristband, insights the speaker wished for during his MIT beginnings, and how materials science principles can enrich the MIT experience.

Professor Mark Miodownik of University College London discussed the essential role of materials science in solving 21^st century problems. He emphasized the importance of linking the microstructure, macrostructure, and the manufacturing system in innovations such as solar cells, batteries, carbon technology, and wind technology.

DMSE’s Professor Lorna Gibson discussed how the microscopic structure of bird feathers gives rise to their remarkable properties. She addressed properties such as color, thermal insulation, and stiffness, as well as how feathers make themselves water repellant and how they collect and suppress sound.

DMSE alum Dan Button, President and CEO of 3D imaging startup AIRY 3D, discussed the practical strategies that are key to financing and building a winning materials business. Referring to the multitude of DMSE companies founded in the last 30 years, he emphasized the importance of a cutting edge solution, rapid time-to-market, and capital efficiency.

Charlie Kuehmann, vice president of materials engineering at SpaceX, discussed how aided by computational power and materials modeling capabilities, materials science and engineering is poised to lead innovations that will address environmental issues. This materials revolution will reduce dependence on fossil fuels and explore solutions beyond planet Earth.

DMSE’s Professor Jeff Grossman discussed the deleterious environmental and political impacts of the world’s long-standing reliance on fossil fuels. He emphasized the role materials science plays in the world of energy through innovations such as solar cells and solar fuels.

Professor David A. Weitz of Harvard discussed the use of microfluidic devices to precisely control the flow and mixing of fluids to make drops. He explained how these drops can be used to create new materials with great potential for encapsulation and release for drug delivery and cosmetic applications.

Professor Jennifer A. Lewis of Harvard described the design, flow properties, and implementation of model and functional inks in 3D printing. She focused on the 3D printing of objects intended for use in emerging applications such as printed electronics, self-healing materials, and tissue engineering scaffolds.  

Professor John A. Rogers of University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign explained the underlying principles in materials science and mechanics that enable state-of-the-art technologies, and illustrated their use in bio-integrated, “tissue-like” electronics with unique capabilities in mapping neural activity on the brain and monitoring physiological status through the skin. 

DMSE’s Professor Lorna Gibson illustrated the wide range of cellular materials, such as honeycombs, foams, wood, plant stems, and leaves, and described how their cellular structures unite properties that are exploited in engineering, nature, and medicine.

DMSE’s Professor Gerbrand Ceder discussed materials challenges in the energy field and the importance of discovering new materials for energy technologies. He talked about MIT’s Materials Genome Project and showed successful examples of high-throughput calculations in the field of lithium batteries.

DMSE’s Professor Caroline Ross discussed the evolution and impact of magnetic materials, from natural magnets to synthetic magnets with amazing properties, such as super-strong magnets, transparent magnets, nanosized magnets, or magnets that can be controlled with electric fields or mechanical deformation.

DMSE’s Professor Michael Rubner discussed the amazing properties that have developed over many years in the natural world and explored synthetic mimics to the nano- and microstructures responsible for these properties. He cited specific examples of engineered films and surfaces that mimic useful behaviors of plants and animals.

DMSE’s Professor Chris Schuh described the connection between scientific thinking and engineering practice in the area of hard metal coatings. He addressed the control of material structure at the nanometer-scale, allowing for the replacement of classical technologies that have significant environmental drawbacks with a new class of environmentally-friendly coatings.

DMSE’s Professor Krystyn Van Vliet discussed recent progress in nanoscale experiments and computational simulation of material systems. She shared what her group, the Van Vliet Laboratory for Material Chemomechanics, has learned about the challenges of modeling and understanding material behavior at surfaces and interfaces that are far from equilibrium.

Alan Taub, the General Motors Executive Director of Research & Development, discussed the promising technology options and approaches concerning sustainability in the auto industry. He addressed the major materials issues in automotive technology areas such as advanced propulsion, electronics, controls and software, and telematics.