FACULTY 

Seok-Woo Lee

LeeLab161027a076-1024x683

Associate Professor, MRS Chapter Advisor 

Materials Science and Engineering  & Institute of Materials Science, University of Connecticut
Office: Science One, Room 1017 / phone: (860) 486-8028 / email) seok-woo.lee at uconn.edu

CV (updated on 04/25/2025): [PDF]. Academic Family Tree: [PDF] – Meet my academic ancestor, Nicolaus Corpernicus!

Major achievements

  • Nominated for UConn-AAUP Teaching Excellence Award (2025)
  • Nominated for UConn Teaching Innovation Award (2021)
  • Nominated for UConn Outstanding Faculty Advisor Award (2020)
  • UConn Today Research Highlights: 2017, 2023, 2025 (UG research)
  • 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, 2025)
  • NASA Early Career Faculty Award ($600,000), NASA (2016)
  • Kavli Nanoscience Postdoctoral Fellowship, Caltech (2011)
  • Stanford University Advisory Board Fellowship, Stanford (2006)

 

GRADUATE STUDENT 

Alex J. Horvath

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

 

PhD Student (August. 2022~present): Co-advising with Prof. Mark Aindow
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
email) kyle.wade at uconn.edu
Research Interests:
  • Finite-size scaling of metal plasticity
  • Size-invariant of strain hardening of metal micropillars

 

UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT

Wyeth Haddok

Undergraduate Student (January, 2025~present)
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Research Interests:
  • Mechanical behavior of Cu-Dy-Y B2 ductile intermetallic compounds

Reid Morrow

Undergraduate Student (January, 2025~present)
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Research Interests:
  • Mechanical behavior of supersaturated Al-Co alloys

Piper Williams

Undergraduate Student (January, 2025~present)
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Research Interests:
  • Nanoindentation properties of superelastic intermetallic compounds

Cydney Sottile

Undergraduate Student (September, 2025~present)
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Research Interests:
  • Cyclic loading properties of nanoporous carbon thin film

     

    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. Kenan Jasavic, MEng (2021): Capstone Design title “Qualification of HMI Powder for LPPS Coater 9”: (Manager @ Space X, Los Angeles, CA)

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

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

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

    10. Zhongyuan Li, PhD (2024): thesis title “In-situ Micromechanical Characterization of Light-weight High-strength Nano-scale Materials”

     

    Undergraduate Students 

    2025

    Wyeth Haddock (MSE, honors, University Scholar, 2025~2026)

    Reid Morrow

    Thatcher Slocum (MSE honors)

    Piper Williams (MSE honors)

    Christina Meehan

    Cydney Sottile

    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