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Materials Science and
Engineering

Core Faculty
TMI's core faculty lead cutting-edge research by running their grants through the institute, fostering collaboration and resource sharing.
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Graduate Program
Our Materials Science and Engineering program is one of the best in the nation, and our graduates go on to be leaders in their fields.
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Research
TMI supports interdisciplinary research at UT Austin, with over 100 faculty focusing on clean energy, nanotechnology, and advanced materials using our state-of-the-art facilities.
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UT Austin Engineers Advance Respiratory Health Tech via NSF's National Innovation Corps Program
The University of Texas at Austin's Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering proudly announces the participation of Dr. Tanya Hutter, Assistant Professor, along with her graduate student, Nirmalay Barua, and TEXVMS mentor Rolly Willis, in the esteemed National Science Foundation's National I-CorpsTM program. Together, they form the RespireCoach team, a pioneering force dedicated to transforming respiratory health through cutting-edge technology.
With New Grant, Physicist Explores Using Sound to Transmit Data in Quantum Computers
UT Austin’s Keji Lai has received a Moore Foundation award reserved for the country’s top experimental physicists.
Dr. Deji Akinwande: New Cockrell Family Regents Chair
Recognized for his groundbreaking contributions to nanomaterial science, nanoelectronics, and biosensors; Professor Deji Akinwande has been appointed by the University leadership as the 'Cockrell Family Regents Chair in Engineering #8'. This appointment is in recognition of his outstanding research, teaching, and service sustained over a decade at the University.
Hypothermal Opto-Thermophoretic Tweezers by Zheng Lab
In their new Nature Communications paper entitled “Hypothermal Opto-Thermophoretic Tweezers” (HOTTs), Professor Yuebing Zheng and his students (Pavana Siddhartha Kollipara – leading author, Jingang Li, Zhihan Chen, Hongru Ding, Youngsun Kim, Suichu Huang) along with collaborators (Xiuying Li and Professor Zhenpeng Qi) have achieved low-power trapping of diverse colloids and biological cells in their native fluids.Page 44 of 47
Texas Materials Seminar Series
The Texas Materials Seminar Series features MSE 397 Seminars, TMI Distinguished Lectureships, and TMI Special Seminars, where leading faculty and professionals from around the world share cutting-edge innovations and advancements in materials engineering with our students.
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News
TMI Faculty Celebrated as Highly Cited Researchers in 2025
Seven faculty members who work with and in the Texas Materials Institute have been distinguished as Highly Cited Researchers for 2025 based on Clarivate's Web of Science Core Collection, a platform that provides reference and citation data from academic journals, conferences, and other documents across disciplines. Each Highly Cited Researcher has authored mulitple highly-cited papers and rank in the top 1% for their field and publication year.
Alexander Demkov elected as MRS Fellow
Dr. Alexander Demkov, a professor of Physics, an associate faculty member of the Oden Institute, and one of the Texas Materials Institute's Core Faculty, was elected as 1 of the 18 MRS Fellows for 2026.
MS&E Graduate Student Publishes on Connection Between Battery Use, Recharging, & Interface Flattening
Tushare Telmasre, a graduate student in the Materials Science & Engineering Program, has recently published an article in ECS Advances that explores the connection between battery usage, recharging, and the surface of the zinc anode. A student in Dr. Venkat Subramanian's lab, Telmasre, along with postdoctoral researcher Dr. Lubhani Mishra, and other UT researchers from the CMES Lab, the paper finds that how a battery is used and then recharged directly impacts the surface of the anode and dendrite growth.
AirGel Takes Top Prize and People’s Choice Award for Innovative Water-Harvesting Device
*Reposted from UT News*
Weixin Guan and Yaxuan Zhao, graduate researchers with the Texas Materials Institute and the Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering at UT’s Cockrell School of Engineering, were recognized for their innovative and cost-effective device, AirGel, which extracts drinking water from humidity in the air. Their invention also won the competition’s People’s Choice Award and received a USPTO Patent Acceleration Certificate from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
$2.5 Million Grant Awarded to Deji Akinwande for Wearable Health Technology
Dr. Deji Akinwande, a professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering department and an affiliate of TMI, was awarded a contract of up to $2.5 million from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), a governmental agency aimed at funding research that supports biomedical and health breakthroughs. This award will help advance Dr. Akinwande's development of a wearable blood pressure monitoring system, a key vital sign for assessing cardiovascular health.
$12M+
In Grant Funding
20+
Research Patents
10K+