Department Head’s Welcome

Welcome to our Spring 2024 Newsletter! This past year, MSE achieved several major milestones and defined strategic initiatives to serve our students as well as the growing needs of our community. In fall 2023, our faculty started planning an undergraduate program in materials science and engineering. Adding an undergraduate program is a major milestone for our department and will help build a pipeline of highly talented students into our field. More details to come, stay tuned!

The U.S. Department of Defense announced that the The University of Texas at Dallas will receive $30 million over three years to develop and commercialize new battery technologies and manufacturing processes, enhance the domestic availability of critical raw materials and train high-quality workers for jobs in an expanding battery energy storage workforce. The award, which creates a prototype Energy Storage Systems Campus, is the largest allocation from a federal agency that the University has received to date. The project will leverage and stimulate over $200 million in private capital.This effort is led by Dr. KJ Cho from our department, and key partners include LEAP Manufacturing, Associated Universities Inc., the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Chicago.

We welcomed two tenure track faculty to our department. Dr. Kevin Brenner researches the transport, conversion and control of thermal and electrical energy, and Dr. Laisuo Su develops materials for renewable energy devices, especially in the area of rechargeable batteries including lithium-ion, sodium-ion and zinc-ion batteries.

Finally, our department continues to lead several major efforts related to the CHIPS Act to ensure U.S. leadership in the semiconductor industry. Lack of training is a major obstacle for U.S. companies to maintain this leadership. In this regard, our department is working to establish certificates and microcredentials in semiconductor science and technology for UT Dallas students as well as for non-traditional students. We are also developing a similar certificate in energy science and technology.

Enjoy this issue of the MSE newsletter. Remember, we make things that matter!