Our People

Message from the Chair

Krishna Rajan, SUNY Distinguished Professor, Erich Bloch Chair and Empire Innovation Professor

Welcome to MDI! The Department of Materials Design and Innovation (MDI) at the University at Buffalo is the first department in the nation conceived and established entirely for training a new generation of scientists and engineers in the methods of data driven materials discovery and design.

Our distinguished faculty are pioneering new methods in materials discovery to accelerate innovation by harnessing the tools of information science to experimental and theoretical studies of materials science and engineering. The department is committed to accelerating science-based solutions to solve pressing societal problems such as climate change and environmental sustainability.

We seek and enroll high achieving students from all backgrounds of science and engineering who are motivated to rapidly advance innovation in materials science that enhance human and social capital.

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Core Faculty

  • Eloise Bihar.
    Eloise Bihar, PhD
    PhD, Microelectronics, École des Mines de Saint-Étienne

    137 Bell Hall

    Phone: (716) 645-2641

    eloisebi@buffalo.edu

    Visiting Assistant Professor
    Department of Materials Design and Innovation
    School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

    Research Interests:: autonomous biosensors, wearable electronics, organic electronics electrophysiology

  • photo of Scott Broderick.
    Scott Broderick, PhD
    PhD, Materials Science and Engineering, Iowa State University

    137 Bell Hall

    Phone: (716) 645-3395

    scottbro@buffalo.edu

    Associate Professor
    Department of Materials Design and Innovation
    School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

    Research Topics: Materials informatics; Electronic structure calculations; Atom probe tomography; Combinatorial materials science

  • Wei Chen.
    Wei Chen, PhD
    PhD, Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University

    120B Bonner Hall

    Phone: (716) 645-9246

    wchen226@buffalo.edu

    Associate Professor
    Department of Materials Design and Innovation
    School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

    Research Interests:: Data-driven and physics-based modeling of material systems; computational design of multi-principal element materials; materials informatics for accelerated materials and knowledge discovery

  • photo of Erik Einarsson.
    Erik Einarsson, PhD
    PhD, University of Tokyo

    113 D Davis Hall

    Phone: (716) 645-5089

    erikeina@buffalo.edu

    Associate Professor
    Department of Electrical Engineering
    School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
    Associate Professor
    Department of Materials Design and Innovation
    School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

    Specialty/Research Focus: Synthesis of low-dimensional materials such as graphene and single-walled carbon nanotubes; materials characterization; THz applications of nanoscale materials

  • photo of Quanxi Jia.
    Quanxi Jia, PhD
    PhD, Electrical and Computer Engineering, University at Buffalo

    136 Bell Hall

    Phone: (716) 645-1157

    qxjia@buffalo.edu

    National Grid Professor of Materials Research
    SUNY Empire Innovation Professor
    SUNY Distinguished Professor
    Department of Materials Design and Innovation
    School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
    Scientific Director
    New York State Center of Excellence in Materials Informatics (CMI)

    Research Topics: Synthesis, characterization, and application of advanced electronic and energy materials; investigation of the processing-structure-property relationship of epitaxial thin films and heterostructures; monolithic integration of materials with complimentary functionalities for electronic devices; and exploration of superconductors and their applications to energy and quantum devices.

  • B. Mazumder.
    Baishakhi Mazumder, PhD
    PhD, University of Rouen

    129 Bell Hall

    Phone: (716) 6451156

    baishakh@buffalo.edu

    Associate Professor
    Department of Materials Design and Innovation
    School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

    Research Topics: Chemical imaging through atom probe tomography

  • Prathima Nalam.
    Prathima Nalam, PhD
    PhD, ETH Zurich

    128 Bell Hall

    Phone: (716) 645-9193

    prathima@buffalo.edu

    Assistant Professor
    Department of Materials Design and Innovation
    School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

    Research Topics: Tribology; soft mechanics; surface and interfacial forces; atomic force microscopy

  • Eric Osei-Agyemang.
    Eric Osei-Agyemang, PhD
    PhD, Université Lille 1

    131 Bell Hall

    Phone: (716) 645-7469

    ericosei@buffalo.edu

    Assistant Professor
    Department of Materials Design and Innovation
    School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

    Research Topics: perovskite materials for energy applications; high entropy alloys, 2D metals and alloys, photovoltaics, optical and thermoelectric materials, electronic and thermal transport, thermal expansion, tribochemistry/mechanochemistry, machine learning materials discovery

  • photo of Bruce Pitman.
    E. Bruce Pitman, PhD
    PhD, Mathematics, Duke University

    123 Bell Hall

    Phone: (716) 645-0739

    pitman@buffalo.edu

    Professor
    Department of Materials Design and Innovation
    School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

    Research Topics: Mathematical modeling; high performance computing; model uncertainty and uncertainty quanti cation

  • photo of Krishna.
    Krishna Rajan, ScD
    ScD, Materials Science, MIT

    120 Bonner Hall

    Phone: (716) 645-1380

    krajan3@buffalo.edu

    Erich Bloch Chair
    SUNY Empire Innovation Professor
    SUNY Distinguished Professor
    Department of Materials Design and Innovation
    School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

    Research Topics: Materials informatics; Quantitative high resolution imaging; Atom probe tomography

  • photo of Reyes.
    Kristofer Reyes, PhD
    PhD, Applied and Interdisciplinary Mathematics, University of Michigan

    134 Bell Hall

    Phone: (716) 645-5159

    kreyes3@buffalo.edu

    Assistant Professor
    Department of Materials Design and Innovation
    School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

    Research Topics: Applied mathematics for computational chemistry and materials science; machine learning algorithms applied to materials science; kinetic Monte Carlo methods in materials simulation

  • Photo of Seo.
    Jung-Hun Seo, PhD
    PhD, Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison

    135 Bell Hall

    Phone: (716) 645-1881

    junghuns@buffalo.edu

    Associate Professor
    Department of Materials Design and Innovation
    School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

    Research Topics: Development of next generation flexible electronics and optoelectronics; novel nano/micro fabrication processes for the future flexible and stretchable electronics; development and heterogeneous integration of novel low-dimension or ultra-wide bandgap semiconductors

  • Snell.
    Edward Snell, PhD
    PhD, Chemistry, University of Manchester

    Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute

    700 Ellicott St.

    Phone: (716) 898-8631

    Fax: (716) 898-8660

    esnell@buffalo.edu

    Professor
    Department of Materials Design and Innovation
    School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
    President & Chief Executive Officer
    Hauptman Woodward Medical Research Institute
    Director
    BioXFEL
    Hauptman Woodward Medical Research Institute

    Research Topics: Bioinformatics; Protein Function and Structure; Proteins and metalloenzymes; Structural Biology; X-ray Crystallography

    Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute

    700 Ellicott St.

    Phone: (716) 898-8631

    Fax: (716) 898-8660

    esnell@buffalo.edu

  • Olga Wodo.
    Olga Wodo, PhD
    PhD, Czestochowa University of Technology

    125 Bell Hall

    Phone: (716) 645-1377

    olgawodo@buffalo.edu

    Associate Professor
    Department of Materials Design and Innovation
    School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

    Research Topics: Informatics and high performance computing for materials design and manufacturing

  • Fei Yao.
    Fei Yao, PhD
    PhD, Sungkyunkwan University

    132 Bell Hall

    Phone: (716) 645-5403

    feiyao@buffalo.edu

    Assistant Professor
    Department of Materials Design and Innovation
    School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

    Research Topics: Nanomaterials and nanostructures for energy storage and conversion

Emeriti Faculty

Laboratory Director

Biodesign Core Facility

Staff

Research Staff and Visiting Scholars

Research Staff:

Ruhil Dongol, PhD
Postdoctoral Associate

Deepesh Giri, PhD
Postdoctoral Associate

Arpan Mukherjee, PhD,
Research Scientist

Logan Williams, PhD
Postdoctoral Associate

Industry Scholar Residence Program:

Kaito Miyamoto, PhD
Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America