FACULTY 

Seok-Woo Lee

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Associate Professor 

MRS Chapter Advisor / MSE Director for Undergraduate Studies

Materials Science and Engineering  & Institute of Materials Science, University of Connecticut
Office: IMS-009A / phone: (860) 486-8028 / email) seok-woo.lee at uconn.edu

CV (updated on 05/23/2024): [PDF]. Academic Family Tree: [PDF] – Meet my academic ancestor, Nicolaus Corpernicus!

Major achievements

  • UConn Today Research Highlights: 2017, 2023
  • Castleman Term Professor in Engineering Innovation (2020-2022)
  • UConn Mentorship Excellence Award, UConn (2019)
  • UConn MSE Faculty of the Year, UConn (2018)
  • UConn MSE Teaching Excellence of the Year, UConn (2017, 2018) – voted by MSE undergraduate students
  • UConn Teaching Excellence, UConn: (2015, Spring) (2017, Spring and Fall) (2018, Fall) (2019, Spring)
  • UConn Research Excellence Award, UConn (2016, 2018, 2022)
  • NASA Early Career Faculty Award ($600,000), NASA (2016)
  • Kavli Nanoscience Postdoctoral Fellowship, Caltech (2011)
  • Stanford University Advisory Board Fellowship, Stanford (2006)

 

GRADUATE STUDENT 

Zhongyuan Li

PhD Student (August. 2019~present)
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Office: IMS-016
email) zhongyuan.li at uconn.edu
Research Interests:
  • Nanomechanical characterization of hybrid organic-inorganic nanocomposites
  • Nanomechanical characterization of nano-porous amorphous carbon

Alex J. Horvath

PhD Student (January. 2022~present)
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Office: IMS-016
email) ajhorvath at uconn.edu
Research Interests:
  • Micromechanical charactecterization of Wire-Arc-Additive-Manufactured (WAAM) Materials
  • Computer simulations: Molecular Dynamics (MD) and Density Functional Theory (DFT)

Zachary Arenella

PhD Student (August. 2022~present)
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Office: IMS-016
email) zachary.arenella at uconn.edu
Research Interests:
  • High strain-rate deformation of metals, alloys, and ceramics at the micrometer scale

 

UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT

Daniel Saccone

Undergraduate Student (June, 2024~present)
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
email) daniel.sacconel at uconn.edu
Research Interests:
  • Nanoindentation study on advanced structural materials

 

ALUMNI

Graduate Students 

1. Keith J. Dusoe, PhD (2018): thesis title “In-situ Micromechanical Characterization of Materials with High Mechanical Potential Energy Absorption Capacity“: (Staff Scientist, Electron and Scanning Probe Microscopy Core Facility @ UMass Amherst, Amherst, MA)

2. John Sypek, PhD (2019): thesis title “Mechanical Properties of the Intermetallic Compound CaFe2As2 at Small Length Scales“: (Additive Materials and Processing Engineer @ Collins Aerospace, Windsor Locks, CT)

3. Gyuho Song, PhD (2020): thesis title “in-situ Cryogenic Mechanical Characterization of Materials at the Micrometer Scale“: (Senior Engineer @ Frore Systems, San Jose, CA)

4. Tyler J. Flanagan, PhD (2021): thesis title “Micromechanical Characterization of High Strain Rate Deformed Materials“: (Technical Staff @ Evans Analytical Group Laboratories, Sunnyvale, CA)

5. Jessica M. Maita, PhD (2022): thesis title “Micromechanical characterization of nanocrystalline and medium-range ordered materials“: (Senior Researcher, Carrier Corporation, Syracuse, NY)

6. Kyle Wade, MS (Plan A) (2022): thesis title “Micromechanical charactecterization of additive manufactured materials“

 

7. Jay Scala, MS (Plan B) (2023): research title “Multi-scale indentation study on wire-arc-additive-manufactured materials” (@ Collins Aerospace, CT)

8. Shuyang Xiao, PhD (2023): thesis title “Mechanical properties of SrNi2P2 at small length scales” (@ SiEn Integrated Circuits Co., Ltd in China)

 

Undergraduate Students 

2024

Daniel Saccone (MSE)

2022-2023

Aurora Buswell (MSE)

2020-2021

Kiera Burns (ME): @ Sikorsky

Robert Williams (MSE, honors, University Scholar, 2021~2023 (co-advising with Prof. Doug Adamson)): @ UMass Medical School

2019

Justin Greenwood (MSE, honors, 2017  and 2019): @ Raytheon

Hetal Patel (MSE, honors, University Scholar, 2015~2019): @ UC Berkeley (PhD Candidate)

2018

Jacob Davis (ME, UMass Amherst. NSF-REU 2018): @ UMass Amherst (PhD Candidate)

Keara Frawley (MSE, honors): @ Georgia Tech (PhD Candidate)

Mariel Colby (MSE): @ Lockheed Martin

2017

John Lacy (ME, Northeastern Univ. NSF-REU 2017)

2016

Amanda Giroux (MSE, NSF-REU 2016): @ Electric Boat

Jack Morley (MSE)

Leopoldo Valencia Jr. (MSE): PhD candidate @ UC Irvine

Andrew Boucher (MSE): @ Electric Boat

Jacob Mount (MSE): @ Stanadyne LLC

Dale Gouveia (MSE): @Electric Boat

2015

EunYoung Jackie Lee (CE)

Andrew Jeffrey (MSE) @TRUMPF North America

Thomas Bissell (MSE): @Pratt & Whitney