Materials Science and Engineering to host lecture spotlighting the Penn State Materials Characterization Lab
Josh Stapleton, director of the Materials Characterization Lab (MCL) at Penn State, will deliver a talk titled “The Penn State Materials Characterization Lab” as part of the Penn State Department of Materials Science and Engineering’s 590 Seminar series. The event will be held at from 3:05 to 4:20 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 4, in 112 Kern Building at Penn State University Park.
Stapleton will discuss how the MCL is a centralized core facility offering comprehensive analytical capabilities and deep expertise to support materials research across disciplines. In a typical year, the MCL supports more than 900 researchers from more than 45 Penn State departments and more than 100 external organizations. This presentation will introduce new graduate students to the instrumentation, expertise, and educational opportunities available at MCL.
Stapleton joined the Materials Research Institute which the MCL is a part of January 2006. He has been the director of the MCL since 2011. The MCL is currently staffed by more than 20 full-time research professionals who oversee all aspects of daily operations for approximately $30M of research instrumentation.
In 2005, he earned a Ph.D. in chemistry from Penn State under the tutelage of David Allara, Ph.D. The focus of research in the Allara group was on the development and application of advanced analytical techniques for surface and interface analysis. Stapleton’s initial work involved understanding the structure and composition of ultra-thin organic layers on metallic and oxide substrates.
Since joining the MCL, Stapleton’s interests have broadened to include the development of methodologies to study the chemistry of glass surfaces all the way to investigating correlations between surface structure and cellular response in biomedical implant devices.
Outside of the lab, Stapleton enjoys biking, hiking, camping and traveling with family while focusing on exploring the forests of Pennsylvania on his mountain bike.