Author Archives: jason
Romancing the stone: DMSE researchers crack magnetic garnet mystery
Scientists love a good mystery—it keeps them querying, testing, changing variables, and trying again. Sometimes a mystery lingers for decades, outlasting technological limitations—and setting the stage for a…
Study of disordered rock salts leads to battery breakthrough
For the past decade, disordered rock salt has been studied as a potential breakthrough cathode material for use in lithium-ion batteries and a key to creating low-cost, high-energy…
Iwnetim Abate wins ISSI Young Scientist Award for energy materials
Iwnetim Abate, assistant professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (DMSE), has been honored with the seventh annual ISSI Young Scientist Award. Organized by the International…
Christine Ortiz named director of MIT Technology and Policy Program
Christine Ortiz, the Morris Cohen Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT, has been named the next director of the MIT Technology and Policy…
More durable metals for fusion power reactors
For many decades, nuclear fusion power has been viewed as the ultimate energy source. A fusion power plant could generate carbon-free energy at a scale needed to address…
With sustainable cement, startup aims to eliminate gigatons of CO2
While today’s cement is made through extremely high temperatures in a kiln, ancient Romans didn’t have that option. Still, anyone who’s been to Rome recently will tell you…
New transistor’s superlative properties could have broad electronics applications
In 2021, a team led by MIT physicists reported creating a new ultrathin ferroelectric material, or one where positive and negative charges separate into different layers. At the…
Machine learning unlocks secrets to advanced alloys
The concept of short-range order (SRO) — the arrangement of atoms over small distances — in metallic alloys has been underexplored in materials science and engineering. But the…
Professor Emeritus John Vander Sande, microscopist, entrepreneur, and admired mentor, dies at 80
MIT Professor Emeritus John B. Vander Sande, a pioneer in electron microscopy and beloved educator and advisor known for his warmth and empathetic instruction, died June 28 in…
Polina Anikeeva named head of DMSE
Polina Anikeeva PhD ’09, the Matoula S. Salapatas Professor at MIT, has been named the new head of MIT’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering (DMSE), effective July…