Dr. Tianjiao Lei, an assistant professor in the Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, has received a National Science Foundation CAREER Award to study interface engineering.
The NSF CAREER Award, one of the nation’s most prestigious honors for early-career faculty, recognizes researchers that push the boundaries of science, engineering and technology while demonstrating leadership in education and outreach.
Lei’s award will support her research centered around grain boundaries, a type of microscopic interface. She aims to determine how grain boundaries govern the performance of aluminum alloys used in transportation, aerospace and other critical structural applications.
“Receiving the NSF CAREER Award is a tremendous honor and an important milestone for my research program,” Lei said. “This award recognizes the potential of my long-term vision in interface engineering and provides an exciting opportunity to advance fundamental research while training the next generation of materials scientists and engineers. I also believe that this award will strengthen the Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering’s leadership in advanced structural materials research, expand opportunities for student training and enhance our national research impact.”
Grain boundaries can be thought of as the seams between microscopic crystals which make up a material. These boundaries control how things move and interact across a material; they strongly influence how electrons, ions, heat, stress and chemicals cross and interact at interfaces.
By combining state-of-the-art characterization techniques with innovative interface engineering approaches, the project aims to reveal how variations in grain boundary chemistry affect boundary structure and precipitation behavior, which ultimately determine key material properties, such as strength, ductility and long-term reliability. The research will establish new fundamental knowledge to enable more precise design of next-generation aluminum alloys with improved performance and will contribute to an open-access interface database to accelerate materials discovery.
Beyond the laboratory, Lei’s project includes an integrated educational program that will train undergraduate and graduate students in interface engineering and advanced
materials characterization while engaging younger students, from elementary to high school, through hands-on outreach activities. NSF CAREER Awards are given by the NSF Faculty Early Career Development Program, which supports early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as role models in both research and education.