Faculty | Penn State Department of Materials Science and Engineering

As biomedical challenges grow more complex, Penn State’s Dipanjan Pan is pioneering a multifaceted approach to nanomedicine that spans basic research, clinical translation and entrepreneurial deployment.

Treponema pallidum, represented in this illustration as purple corkscrews, is the bacterium that gives rise to syphilis.

In the United States, syphilis cases rose by nearly 80% between 2018 and 2023, with 209,253 cases reported in the latest year of data. The infection, which can be transmitted sexually or passed from mother to infant during birth, is curable but only if diagnosed quickly. Left untreated, syphilis can progress from painless lesions to brain and cardiovascular damage.

Professor John Mauro of Penn State University shared the latest developments of the LionGlass project through a video presentation, highlighting its potential applications and environmental benefits.

LionGlass is a family of glass engineered by researchers at Penn State University in the USA.

The 17th annual Materials Visualization Competition "Best of Show" award went to “Nano soccer balls from nature” by Jinsol Choi, postdoctoral scholar in mechanical engineering.

The winners of the 17th annual Materials Visualization Competition (MVC), a scientific visual and artistic competition sponsored by the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and the Materials Research Institute at Penn State, have been announced. MVC celebrates the quality of research in materials at Penn State and promotes awareness of materials science through visualization.

Jim Manchin, induction heating sales manager (left), and Doug Kuzma, general manager of Mesta, pose with one of the two Mesta 50kW Induction Heating Power Supplies.

“If you sow 1,000 seeds, you’ll get more fruit,” said Nutifafa Doumon, referring to the connections and collaborations formed at the recent NASEM Frontiers symposium. “That’s something that drives me. I’m looking for connections that can drive both parties’ success and research output forward.”

For some pressing research problems, an ocean’s worth of distance isn’t enough to prevent the connection to some common ground. That’s the point behind the annual National Academies U.S.-Africa Frontiers of Science, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) Symposium.

The research team awarded a $1 million, two-year grant to help revolutionize metal additive manufacturing includes, from left to right: Tao Sun, associate professor of mechanical engineering at Northwestern University; and Penn State faculty members Christopher Kube, associate professor of engineering science and mechanics; Andrea Argüelles, associate professor of engineering science and mechanics and of acoustics and affiliate of the Materials Research Institute; and Allison Beese, professor of materials s

Additive manufacturing, or 3D printing, has drastically improved the uniformity and speed of metal parts manufacturing, but the printed parts are often plagued with defects, such as pores, that limit their performance. The process also requires an inspection of each part after printing, which can slow down production and limit where parts can be made.

John Mauro named head of Department of Materials Science and Engineering

John Mauro, Dorothy Pate Enright Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, has been named head of Penn State’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering, effective July 1. Mauro will succeed Susan Sinnott, who has served as the head of the department since 2015.

Nanofab lab processing 8 inch wafer at MRI

The Materials Research Institute (MRI) at Penn State has announced the recipients of the 2025 Interdisciplinary Seed Grants and Transdisciplinary Teaming Initiative awards, designed to support collaborative, high-risk research with the potential for significant societal and technological impact.

Urara Hasegawa, assistant professor at Penn State, demonstrates thermogels, special materials that can turn from a liquid into a solid when triggered by heat. New thermogels developed by Hasegawa and her team show promise as a next-generation biomaterials.

Special biomedical materials that can be injected as a liquid and turn into a solid inside our bodies — called thermogels — could provide a less-invasive way to deliver drugs or treat wounds. Scientists at Penn State have developed a new design for these materials that further improves their properties and may hold particular promise for use in tissue regeneration, the researchers said.