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MIT Department of Materials Science and Engineering
MIT Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Jason Sparapani | May 19, 2025

DMSE hires three new faculty members

Biomaterials expert Tania Lopez-Silva will start in July. Archaeometallurgist Thomas Rose and DMSE alum Shaolou Wei will arrive in January 2026.
Categories: Department News
(From left) Tania Lopez-Silva, Thomas Rose, and Shaolou Wei will join DMSE as assistant professors. Lopez-Silva arrives in July; Rose and Wei begin in January 2026.
Courtesy photos

DMSE welcomes new faculty members Tania Lopez-Silva, Thomas Rose, and Shaolou Wei, bringing new expertise in bioinspired materials, archaeometallurgy, and sustainable alloy design.  
 
“Each brings a unique vision to the department,” said Polina Anikeeva, head of DMSE. “We cannot wait to see what exciting programs they launch will here.” 
 
Lopez-Silva will join as an assistant professor in July. Rose and Wei will begin in January 2026. 
 
Lopez-Silva designs hydrogels that mimic biological environments and guide the immune system, with applications in wound healing, nerve regeneration, and cancer treatment. She earned her PhD in chemistry from Rice University and is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the National Cancer Institute, where she develops drug delivery materials and studies how the body responds to different material designs.  
 
Rose is a postdoctoral researcher in archaeometallurgy at the Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum in Germany. He studies early copper smelting technologies and develops digital tools to support archaeological data management and analysis. He holds a dual PhD from Ben-Gurion University in Israel and Sapienza in Italy. 
 
Wei, a DMSE alum, is an Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow at the Max-Planck Institute for Sustainable Materials. His research integrates phase transformations, chemical reactions, and in situ testing to advance sustainable alloy design. He earned his Sc.D. from MIT in 2022, focusing on martensitic transformations in metastable alloys.