FACULTY

Seok-Woo Lee

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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 03/26/2026): [PDF]. Academic Family Tree: [PDF] – Meet my academic ancestor, Nicolaus Corpernicus!

Major achievements

 

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

 

Kyle P. Wade

PhD Student (August. 2022~present): Co-advising with Prof. Mark Aindow (MSE)
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

 

Thomas Pae

Employee Photograph

PhD Student (August. 2025~present): Co-advising with Prof. Barrett Wells (Physics)
Department of Physics
email) thomas.pae at uconn.edu
Research Interests:
  • Phase transformation of ThCr2Si2-structured intermetallic compounds
  • in-situ mechanical measurement with Synchrotron X-ray diffraction

 

Reid Morrow

Incoming PhD Student (August. 2026~present):
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
email) reid.morrow at uconn.edu
Research Interests:
  • Shape memory effect of ThCr2Si2-structured intermetallic compounds
  • laser-induced surface hardening processing of aluminum alloys

 

 

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

    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 

      2025~2026

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

      Reid Morrow

      Thatcher Slocum (MSE honors)

      Piper Williams (MSE honors)

      Christina Meehan

      Cydney Sottile

      2024~2025

      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