Administrator
Zi-Kui Liu, the Corning Faculty Fellow in Materials Science and Engineering in the Penn State College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, will receive the 2026 Materials Theory Award from the Materials Research Society. Liu will receive his award and present a lecture, “The Quest for Predictability — Thermodynamics as a Foundation Across Scales and Domains,” as part of the Materials Research Society’s annual meeting from Nov. 29 to Dec. 4 in Boston.
Nuclear energy is a clean, low-carbon power source that can generate electricity 24 hours a day, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. New reactor technologies, such as molten salt reactors — which use high-temperature liquid salts instead of water as the primary coolant — have the potential to improve fuel utilization and support more efficient fuel recycling, among other possible benefits, according to a team led by scientists in Penn State’s College of Earth and Mineral Sciences.
10:30 - 11:00 a.m. Coffee with speaker | 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. Seminar
Laure Kayser, Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Delaware
The Penn State Department of Materials Science and Engineering welcomes Saeed S. I. Almishal as a tenure-track assistant professor, effective July 2026. Almishal also holds an appointment with the Materials Research Institute.
“Saeed is an exceptional scientist with the curiosity, vision, and drive needed to become an international leader in research and teaching,” said Jon-Paul Maria, interim head of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. “I had the privilege of working with him during his doctoral studies, where he distinguished himself through his independence, hard work, and creativity. It has been exciting to see his growth, and we are thrilled to welcome him to the faculty as he builds a research program that will advance the field.”
Almishal’s research focuses on understanding how complex materials behave at the atomic and electronic levels, and how those insights can be used to design next-generation technologies. His group, the Quantum (Information) Materials Science (Q(I)MS) Research Group, studies transport phenomena, electronic behavior and magnetism in solid-state materials, with a focus on emergent properties in strongly correlated ceramics, chemically complex materials, and coherent interfaces and heterostructures.
More broadly, his work aims to understand the behavior and transport of bosonic and fermionic quasiparticles in solid-state systems and translate those insights into design principles for new materials and devices. This research supports advances in classical computing while helping bridge quantum information science and quantum-enabled technologies.
“Our goal is to uncover and predictively control how electrons and other quasiparticles behave, evolve and move through solid-state materials, enabling the design and realization of next-generation technologies that span the continuum from advanced classical computing to quantum information systems,” Almishal said.
Almishal earned dual degrees in mechanical engineering from The British University in Egypt and London South Bank University in 2019. He went on to earn a master’s degree in mechanical engineering, specializing in computational materials science, from Penn State Harrisburg in May 2021. He then joined Penn State’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering, where he earned his doctorate in December 2024 and later served as a research professor beginning in January 2025.
His research also explores the thermodynamics, synthesis, and emergent functionality of novel disordered materials, including high-entropy oxides, as well as transport properties and electronic behavior in strongly correlated systems.
Follow the Almishal Research Group on Instagram as they built their lab and share their research journey @quantum.materialsgroup
10:30 - 11:00 a.m. Coffee with speaker | 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. Seminar
Matthew Tirrell, Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Minnesota; Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago; and Argonne National Laboratory
The Nelson W. Taylor Lecture in Materials Science and Engineering honors the memory of Professor Nelson W. Taylor (1869–1965) who was head of Penn State’s Department of Ceramics from 1933–1943. During his tenure as department head, Dr. Taylor refined the ceramics undergraduate curriculum, strengthened the graduate program, expanded ties with industry, and was able to attract important scientists (for example Woldemar A. Weyl) to the faculty. He is recognized as the individual most responsible for establishing the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences as a major center for ceramics research. The Nelson W. Taylor Lecture Series was established in 1969, and has consistently attracted scientists of international prominence.
Penn State showcased its leadership in critical minerals and materials research and workforce development through a recent three-day workshop that brought together nearly 150 representatives from academia, industry and government agencies.
Remember the solar calculator from middle school math class that had a small solar cell at the top? The idea behind that technology is not a relic of the past, but the subject of continuous innovation. Today’s indoor solar cells, known as photovoltaics, use new semiconductor materials, such as metal halide perovskite, to convert ambient light into electricity to power small electronic devices without needing batteries or a power outlet.
Penn State and Kurt J. Lesker Company (KJLC) are launching a strategic partnership to develop new ways to create and shape the extremely thin layers of specialized materials that form critical parts of semiconductor, advanced packaging, quantum, photonic and other next-generation technologies. As these technologies become smaller and more complex, researchers need increasingly precise control over the materials they are made from, in some cases down to the scale of individual atoms.
Clive Randall, Evan Pugh University Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Penn State, has been named an inaugural recipient of the Inamori-KYOCERA Award, an international honor recognizing individuals whose scholarship, invention, technological innovation and international collaboration have substantially advanced the ceramics industry.
