Administrator
Materials Science and Engineering to host seminar on alloy innovation through additive manufacturing
Heating and cooling account for most of the energy used in homes and businesses, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Additionally, heat gain and loss through windows can waste up to 30% of the energy used to heat and cool a home. With this in mind, a research team at Penn State is exploring the development of smart windows that use a unique polymer to block sunlight. On the latest episode of “Growing Impact,” the team discusses how the material works and how these smart windows might change the way buildings are designed, built and operated.
Sarah Perry, professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Penn State, will present “Polyelectrolyte complex materials” as part of the Penn State Department of Materials Science and Engineering’s (MatSE) 590 Seminar series. The event will be held from 3:05 to 4:20 p.m. on Thursday, October 2 in 112 Kern Building on the University Park campus.
Join us for our second GBM of the semester! ●
Materials Science and Engineering to host lecture spotlighting polyelectrolyte complex materials
Sarah Perry, professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Massachusetts Amherst, will present “Polyelectrolyte complex materials” as part of the Penn State Department of Materials Science and Engineering’s (MatSE) 590 Seminar series. The event will be held from 3:05 to 4:20 p.m. on Thursday, October 2 in 112 Kern Building on the University Park campus.
Thinking about graduate school in STEM? Join us for an interactive event designed to help you prepare! Hear directly from current graduate students in an "Ask Me Anything" session, learn what faculty reviewers look for in PhD applications, gain insights from students and alumni who earned their Master's degrees, and get expert tips on writing a compelling personal statement. This event is Free for all Penn State students. Students from external universities have a cost of $25 associated with registration.
Building on a legacy of excellence in glass science and engineering, the new Center for Glass Research (CGR) brings together the expertise of researchers from Penn State, Alfred University, and Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) in a strategic collaborative initiative.
“United by a shared commitment to innovation, the Center for Glass Research plans to integrate fundamental research with cutting-edge experimental and computational methods to tackle the most pressing challenges facing the glass industry today,” said Maziar Montazerian, managing director of the CGR and assistant research professor of materials science and engineering at Penn State.
The mission of the CGR is to advance glass technologies through leveraging new tools and new approaches. The knowledge outcomes and technological advancements that result will be developed in close collaboration with industry partners, ensuring a seamless transition from laboratory innovations to real-world industrial applications.
Between 1996 and 2006, the National Science Foundation supported a CGR through its Industry-University Cooperative Research Center Program which led to groundbreaking initiatives that transformed the glass industry. Hosted at Alfred University, and including the same partners, Missouri S&T, and Penn State, the center forged lasting partnerships with key U.S. glass industry leaders and made substantial contributions to basic science, manufacturing, defense, and biomedical technologies. Its impact continues to shape the field today. The new center will build on and expand those contributions.
One of most lasting achievements of the previous CGR was cultivating a skilled workforce pipeline that guided students into impactful careers and drove innovation across the industry. But as the glass industry evolved, so did its challenges. Today, the sector faces urgent demands: decarbonization, advanced performance requirements, and a rapidly expanding customer base. Fortunately, new tools—such as in-situ characterization with real-time sensing, machine learning, and advanced simulations of non-equilibrium materials—offer powerful ways to meet these challenges.
“Together, Penn State, Alfred University, and Missouri S&T form an ideal team,” Montazerian said. “Each institution brings unique strengths to the table.”
By joining forces, each institution can systematically tackle the most complex scientific problems facing the glass industry today, problems no single institution could solve alone.
“This revitalized center represents a significant step forward for glass research, and we’re proud to be part of it,” said Montazerian.
To celebrate the launch of the new CGR, there will be an inaugural kickoff meeting at Penn State on October 29, 2025. This event will bring together leading experts from academia and industry to explore collaborative opportunities, share insights, and set priorities for research and workforce development.
“Our initiatives have received enthusiastic responses from academic and industry partners,” said Montazerian. “The agenda’s packed with talks and presentations that explore today’s biggest challenges in glass science, explore new proposal opportunities, and look ahead to where the field and the workforce is headed.”
For more information visit the Center for Glass Research website.
Dear MatSE friends and alumni,
Materials science and engineering at Penn State is much broader than just our department. Indeed, the interdisciplinary nature of materials science and engineering is a large part of what makes this field compelling to so many people, combining physics, chemistry, and mathematics. The field also sits at the intersection of science and engineering, both advancing fundamental composition-structure-property relationships while also inventing new products that can address global challenges in healthcare, energy, information technology, transportation, architecture, and more. The periodic table is our playground in the new ceramics, glasses, metals, polymers, and composites. From experimental synthesis, characterization, and process science to theoretical and computational investigations, there is also a broad range of methods for approaching materials research.
Penn State has been at the forefront of materials research and education beginning with the founding of the metallurgy program in 1908 and the ceramic science program in 1923. Penn State’s first intercollege program in materials dates back to 1960, which led to the establishment of the Materials Research Laboratory (MRL) in 1962. Thirty years later, the Materials Research Institute (MRI) was founded, and MRL formally merged into MRI in 2001. Over the past decade, MRI has been led by Clive Randall, Evan Pugh University Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, who has broadened MRI membership to 320 faculty members across 30 departments and 8 colleges at Penn State.
Today, our Materials Characterization Laboratory (MCL) is the envy of the materials science community. Beyond the impressive array of state-of-the-art equipment, the real strength of the MCL is in its people: more than twenty staff members who are recognized experts in their respective areas of characterization. The MCL team works collaboratively with faculty, graduate students, and industry partners to solve complex materials challenges, often pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in nanoscale and atomic-level analysis. Recently, MCL staff members started offering one-credit graduate courses to provide rigorous hands-on training with advanced instruments, helping the next generation of materials scientists become not just users, but experts in characterization techniques.
MRI provides Penn State with a unique advantage. I’ve visited dozens of universities across the globe, but none can compare to what we have here at Penn State. The level of interdisciplinary collaboration, depth of expertise, and shared commitment to excellence are unmatched—and we owe much of that to the tremendous vision and leadership that has shaped MRI over the years.
In this October 2025 issue of our Imagine, we celebrate MRI’s successes as a model for interdisciplinary research, a hub of innovation, and a home for collaboration. We’re proud of what our community has built, and even more excited about what lies ahead. Thank you for being part of our vibrant MatSE family. Your continued engagement and support help us remain at the forefront of materials science and engineering.
We Are!
John C. Mauro
Dorothy Pate Enright Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, and Department Head of Materials Science and Engineering at Penn State
Artificial intelligence-powered large language models (LLM) need to be trained on massive datasets to make accurate predictions — but what if researchers don't have enough of the right type of data?
