The Hopkins Extreme Materials Institute (HEMI) is thrilled to welcome the Center for Integrated Structure-Material Modeling & Simulation (CISMMS) and the Johns Hopkins Center for Additive Manufacturing and Architected Materials (JAM²) as new partner centers! These two world-class research units enable new areas of extreme materials research to be addressed, strengthening the research portfolio and impact of the HEMI team.  “The addition of CISMMS and JAM² is an incredibly exciting partnership opportunity.  The addition of preeminent experts in the fields of multi-scale modeling, architected materials, and additive manufacturing will allow HEMI to address key problems with broad societal implications.  These are also great people, who I am looking forward to working with to expand the footprint of extreme materials at Hopkins,” said Tim Rupert, director of HEMI and professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering.

CISMMS, under the direction of Professor Somnath Ghosh (Director), is a collaborative, multidisciplinary research and educational program that fosters foundational advances in computational modeling, simulation, and design in the fields of integrated computational materials science and engineering, multi-scale analysis, and computational structure-material analysis and design. Research at CISMMS focuses on creating computerized models and simulations to study and improve the design of materials ranging from automobiles and aircraft to biomaterials and electronics. CISMMS has received funding from (1) Air Force Center of Excellence on Integrated Materials Modeling (CEIMM) from 2012-2018, (2) Institute for Modeling-based Qualification and Certification of Additive Manufacturing (IMQCAM): A NASA Space Technology Research Institute (STRI) from 2023-2028, and (3) Air Force Research Laboratory Defense University Research Instrumentation Program from 2021-2022, to name a few.

JAM², under the direction of Professor Kevin Hemker (Director) and Professor James Guest (Deputy Director), conducts cross-cutting research in design, manufacturing, characterization and applications of additive manufacturing and architected materials. “HEMI has done a fantastic job of bringing together and raising the profile of researchers engaged in materials science and engineering across Hopkins.  My colleagues in JAM² and I are excited to have Tim Rupert at Hopkins, embrace his vision for the future of HEMI, and look forward to engaging and working with the HEMI staff and the myriad of HEMI Fellows and researchers.”, said Kevin Hemker, who holds the Alonzo G. Decker Chair of Mechanical Engineering and is the Director of JAM². The work of JAM² is revolutionizing material performance for a broad array of engineering applications, including automotive, aviation, defense, energy, healthcare, medicine, and space.

We are thrilled to announce that HEMI fellows Ryan Hurley and Vicky Nguyen have accepted co-Deputy Directors roles for HEMI. Together they will work with HEMI Director Tim Rupert to maintain HEMI’s strengths while broadening the impact of extreme materials research on campus through new initiatives.

Ryan Hurley is an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, with a secondary appointment in the Department of Civil and Systems Engineering. His research focus includes developing and using novel experiments and numerical models to study the mechanical behavior and failure mechanisms of granular materials, rocks, concrete, and ceramics.

Vicky Nguyen is a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, with a secondary appointment in the Materials Science and Engineering and Ophthalmology departments. Her research is broadly interested in studying the mechanics of stimuli-responsive and structural polymers, biomechanics of soft connective tissues, and injury biomechanics of the visual system using an integrated experimental and computational modeling approach.

MESSAGE FROM THE DEAN, SENT TO WHITING SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING FACULTY AND STAFF 6/24/2024

Dear WSE faculty and staff,

It is my pleasure to share that Tim Rupert, Engr ’07, ’07 (MSE), will be joining us from the University of California Irvine on July 1 as a professor of materials science and engineering and the new director of the Hopkins Extreme Materials Institute.

Tim’s research encompasses metallurgy, nanostructured materials, and defect science and engineering. While he is bringing plenty of his own projects and ideas to the institute, Tim is passionate about leading, enabling, and facilitating the work of others. To that end, he seeks to expand targeted facets of HEMI’s research portfolio while increasing meaningful engagement with existing fellows and collaborators.

Tim led the creation of the University of California Irvine’s Materials Discovery and Synthesis Center, where he served as director. This user facility enables members of the materials science community to create and discover new metallic and ceramic materials, from nanomaterials to bulk specimens. Tim was also instrumental in bringing the first NSF Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers grant to Irvine for the Center for Complex and Active Materials.

Tim is a fellow of ASM International and has received the ASM International Bradley Stoughton Award for Young Teachers. He is a recipient of other notable awards, including the NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award, Army Research Office Young Investigator Program (YIP) Award, Department of Energy Early Career Research Program Award, and AIME-TMS Rossiter W. Raymond Memorial Award.

Tim succeeds Jaafar El-Awady, interim director of HEMI and professor in the departments of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering. Under Jaafar’s leadership, HEMI maintained its status as a global hub where experts in materials science, mechanical engineering, and other fields come together to explore the science behind what happens to materials, structures, and systems under extreme conditions.

Founded in 2012, HEMI features more than 50 faculty members from the Whiting School of Engineering, Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, and the JHU Applied Physics Laboratory. HEMI researchers strive to tackle the world’s greatest challenges by examining them at their most fundamental levels, focusing on materials and structures under extreme conditions and demonstrating extreme performance. Fellows engage in collaborative research activities with peers from other academic institutions, government laboratories, and private companies.

Historically, the bulk of HEMI’s research has been heavily focused on materials for dynamic environments and defense. Moving forward, Tim hopes to maintain strengths in these areas while also broadening what the institute considers “extreme materials” by diversifying the applications and funding sources considered by HEMI fellows. He hopes to cultivate deeper engagement with Hopkins faculty focused on high-temperature materials, fusion energy materials, and nanostructured materials, while encouraging complementary materials discovery and synthesis activities.

Please join me in welcoming Tim back to the Whiting School and thanking Jaafar for his leadership and guidance.

Sincerely,

Ed Schlesinger
Benjamin T. Rome Dean

Rebecca Schulman, an associate professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, has been named one of 10 2023 Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellows by the U.S. Department of Defense. The five-year, $3 million individual award aims to facilitate the progression of fundamental research, encourage collaboration between researchers and national defense experts, and enable investigators to pursue breakthrough discoveries in their fields.

Schulman, who holds secondary appointments in chemistry and computer science, is a HEMI fellow exploring the interfaces of materials science, biochemistry, circuit design, soft matter physics, and cell-free synthetic biology. Her project, “Self-organizing Biomaterials Using Biomolecular Networks,” will investigate how engineers can build complex machines and materials by applying similar principles to those used in biological development.

“Genes build living things by hierarchically organizing molecules, organelles, cells, tissues, and organs,” said Schulman. “Our project will investigate whether engineers might adopt similar ideas.”

Schulman is looking forward to her fellowship term and expressed gratitude for the people who have assisted her in her efforts so far. Preliminary data and concepts for this fellowship were obtained through an AI for materials seed project funded through the Center for Materials in Extreme Dynamic Environments.

“I am excited about the opportunity to deeply explore new ideas and take risks,” said Schulman.

Paulette Clancy will be appointed the Edward J. Schaefer Professor in Engineering as of July 1.

Clancy, who serves as department head and professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, is a HEMI fellow specializing in computational materials processing. Her research group studies advanced organic materials, algorithm development, machine learning, and renewable energy materials. Clancy is also the director of research (discovery and inquiry) for Johns Hopkins AI-X Foundry and associate director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Integrated Structure-Mechanical Modeling and Simulation (CISMMS).

The Edward J. Schaefer Professorship in Engineering was endowed by Edward J. Schaefer ’23 and his wife, Hildegarde Schaefer. He was instrumental in opening a discrete school of engineering at the university.

Sung Hoon Kang, HEMI Fellow and assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, has been selected as a recipient of a Hanwha Non-Tenured Faculty Award.

The awards, given by Hanwha Solutions and Hanwha Total Energy, are designed to construct overseas R&D network and to expand a range of research and development, promotes the sharing and cooperative research and development of technology through mutual exchange from the early stages of research.

Kang received an award from the advanced materials division of Hanwha Solutions for his research in additive manufacturing technology using various new materials. He received his award on June 8th via an online ceremony.

Muyinatu “Bisi” Bell, HEMI Fellow and John C. Malone Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Chemical Engineering, has been selected as one of 38 early-career faculty members to receive a 2022 Johns Hopkins Catalyst Award.

The Catalyst Award program offers winners the means and opportunities to pursue a wide range of projects, from disease treatments to environmental studies. Recipients of Catalyst Awards are selected based on their accomplishments to date, creativity and originality, and academic impact. Each awardee will receive a $75,000 grant to support their work over the next year, as well as the opportunity to participate in mentoring sessions and other events. Click here to view the other 2022 awardees.

The program is open to any full-time faculty member appointed to a tenure-track position at least three and no more than 10 years ago. Recipients are celebrated each fall. This is the seventh year of the program, which has now recognized a total of 244 high-potential faculty from all divisions of the institution.

In a surprise virtual presentation, JHU President Ron Daniels presented the award to Alexis Battle, an associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, and Sarah Hörst, HEMI Fellow and an associate professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. Both researchers will receive $250,000 to pursue new lines of research, expand their laboratories, or support their lab members.

“Let me take this moment to say how dazzled we were, Alexis and Sarah, by the ambitions and scope of your research and how highly your colleagues, mentors, and students regard each of you,” said Daniels in the virtual presentation. “Having a way to honor those qualities in our faculty was a reason why we created this amazing award eight years ago. … You both join a cadre of truly remarkable people from across all our divisions whose work truly stands apart.”

The President’s Frontier Award was originally launched with a commitment of $2.5 million from trustee Louis J. Forster, A&S ’82, SAIS ’83, and is now paired with a $1 million donation from alumnus David Smilow, A&S ’84. Winners have spanned the university’s divisions and included molecular biologist Andrew Holland (2021), mathematician Emily Riehl (2020), astrophysicist Brice Ménard (2019), nephrologist and epidemiologist Deidra Crews (2018), composer Michael Hersch (2017), molecular biologist Scott Bailey (2016), and stem cell research Sharon Gerecht (2015).

The award typically recognizes one winner and one finalist each year, but Battle and Hörst were both selected this year based on the strength of their applications and the demonstrated impact and continued potential of their work.

“The two of you embody in some sense the incredible breadth of research that goes on at JHU,” said Ed Schlesinger, dean of the Whiting School of Engineering. “From the very smallest genetic materials that define what life is all about to the planets, space, the cosmos, and the search for life beyond our own world—there is something particularly poetic about the juxtaposition of both of [your work].”

Hörst, a planetary scientist, studies the composition and characteristics of aerosols in the atmospheres of early Earth and other planets. Using laboratory experiments, modeling, and remote sensing and in situ measurements of atmospheric chemistry, Hörst and her lab work to understand how small molecules transition to become aerosols and the resulting physical and chemical properties of those particles.

Image caption:Sarah Hörst

The work has implications for assessing the habitability of other planets and for the search for life beyond our solar system. Under the right conditions, adding energy to simple mixtures of common gases can produce much more complex molecules like amino acids, which form the building blocks of living organisms.

Essential to her work is her groundbreaking approach to laboratory science. Using a custom-built Planetary Haze Research lab—a one-of-its-kind experimental lab—Hörst and her group simulate the chemical reactions that contribute to the formation of aerosols in planetary atmospheres. With this approach, she can experiment with a vast range of temperatures (90-800 degrees Kelvin, or -297-980 degrees Fahrenheit) and can use different energy sources to initiate chemical reactions across a variety of atmospheric gases and conditions. Her lab is the first in the world to be dedicated to studying photochemical haze production in exoplanet environments, and she has published research on Saturn, Saturn’s moon Titan, and early Earth.

Hörst’s work is directly relevant to important space missions, including two upcoming NASA missions: Dragonfly, which will investigate prebiotic organic chemistry and habitability on Saturn’s largest moon, Titan; and DAVINCI+, which will probe the chemical composition of the atmosphere of Venus.

“Particularly impressive is her ingenuity and creativity in developing and leading a new scientific field essentially from scratch: extrasolar planet atmosphere laboratory studies,” wrote Sabine Stanley, a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor and chair of the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, in a letter nominating Hörst for the award. “Her work has already had major impact on the global effort to observe and characterize exoplanet atmospheres.”

She received the 2020 LAD Early Career Award from the American Astronomical Society’s Laboratory Astrophysics Division and the prestigious 2020 James B. Macelwane Medal from the American Geophysical Union, widely considered the highest honor for early career scientists in the field of geological and planetary sciences. She received a Johns Hopkins Catalyst Award in 2017 and was a co-investigator on a Discovery Award led by Maya Gomes in 2020.

Hörst received two bachelor of science degrees—one in planetary science and one in literature—from the California Institute of Technology. She received her PhD in planetary sciences from the University of Arizona, Tucson. She joined Johns Hopkins in 2014 and currently mentors three graduate students, two postdoctoral research fellows, and an associate research scientist.

Chris Celenza, dean of the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, gave Hörst particular praise for her emphasis on mentorship and collegiality.

“I often think that we are at our best in the arts and sciences when we’re reciprocally reinforcing conversations among faculty, postdocs, graduate students, and undergraduates,” Celenza said during the award presentation. “I know in your lab, you’ve cultivated that very type of engagement, so I want to thank you, deeply, for all you have done for this wonderful Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and for Johns Hopkins and for the Krieger School.”

Hörst’s dedication to her lab members was evident from the moment they “Zoom bombed” the meeting, joining in on the coordinated surprise. “When I saw the names popping up on the screen, all I could think was how much more great science the people who are already working with me are going to get to do,” Hörst said through tears. “And that means the absolute world to me.”

This article is excerpted from The Hub. The original piece was published on January 26, 2022.

Mark O. Robbins, HEMI Fellow and professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, died unexpectedly on Thursday, August 13, 2020.

Robbins was a member of the HEMI’s Executive Committee and a significant contributor to the research in the MEDE program. He was one of the world’s leading authorities on the mechanisms of friction, granular flow, the mechanics of earthquakes, polymer rheology and molecular dynamics. Within MEDE, he played a dominant role in the modeling aspects of the Polymers CMRG, and more recently in the modeling of granular flow within the Ceramics CMRG. His legacy in the physics of disordered matter is very substantial, and his legacy in terms of the people that he mentored is stronger still.

He also is known for his research regarding the atomic origin of macroscopic phenomena such as earthquakes and avalanches and his help in leading the establishment of major computer facilities at Johns Hopkins University.

Read a full remembrance of Prof. Robbins.