Structural Materials

We pioneer research in aluminum and magnesium alloys and advance the state-of-the-art in materials for extreme environments.

Our department has a rich history in structural materials research, which focuses on a material’s processing, microstructure, and mechanical property relationships. We are leaders in fatigue and fracture, working at the confluence of mechanical, chemical, and metallurgical factors. We address the design and discovery of advanced materials for extreme environments and the development of innovative processes for making them. and possess significant expertise in ceramic matrix composites. We make full use of our computational expertise to refine and accelerate the development of new materials and to better understand their fundamental properties. We seek to understand the physics underlying additive manufacturing processes, in order to develop advanced alloy/composite systems and create materials with novel properties and designed geometry.

Core Faculty

Sean R. Agnew

William G. Reynolds Professor of Materials Science Professor of Materials Science and Engineering Professor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, by courtesy

Currently Recruiting

Our research is focused primarily on metals analysis, including magnesium alloy formability, intermetallic behaviors, and aluminum alloy fatigue.

Google Scholar The Agnew Research Group

Email [email protected]

Phone (434) 924-0605

Prasanna Balachandran

Heinz and Doris Wilsdorf Research Associate Professor, Materials Science and Engineering Associate Professor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, by courtesy

My interests are in materials informatics, density functional theory, machine learning, bayesian inference, and optimal design methods applied to accelerate the search and discovery of novel 2D materials, metallic alloys, ferroic and electronic materials.

Google Scholar Materials Informatics Group

Ji Ma

Associate Professor, Materials Science and Engineering

Ji Ma's research explores using additive manufacturing to create materials with novel properties and incorporating these materials in designed geometry to produce functionally unique parts, focusing on the additive manufacturing of metallic alloys and control of solidification, porosity, residual stress, and micro-to-nano-scale microstructure.

Google Scholar

Email [email protected]

Elizabeth J. Opila

Department Chair Rolls-Royce Commonwealth Professor of Engineering Professor, Materials Science and Engineering Director, Rolls-Royce University Technology Center on Advanced Material Systems Professor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, by courtesy

Our research focuses on materials for use in extreme environments and can be applied to materials for use in aircraft engines, rocket engines, energy conversion technologies, and thermal protection systems.

Google Scholar Opila Research Group Rolls-Royce UTC for Advanced Materials Systems Group news

Email [email protected]

Tao Sun

Adjunct Associate Professor, Materials Science & Engineering

Tao Sun’s research interests include advanced manufacturing, x-ray science and techniques, materials characterization, in situ/operando experiments, machine design and instrumentation, and simulation and machine learning.

Google Scholar Northwestern University Profile Mechanical Engineering

Email [email protected]

Phone (434) 243-6338

Haydn N. Wadley

University Professor, Edgar Starke Professor of Materials Science and Engineering Professor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, by courtesy

Haydn N.G. Wadley is a professor of Materials Science and Engineering at UVA. He has interests in materials science, composite materials, micromechanics, and thermal transport. His current research explores high temperature thermal coatings systems, microarchitectured materials, entropy stabilized refractory metal alloys and rare earth silicates.

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Email [email protected]

Phone (434) 982-5671

Leonid V. Zhigilei

Lawrence R. Quarles Professor of Engineering and Applied Science Professor of Materials Science and Engineering Academic Advisor, MSE Virginia Engineering Online Program

Leonid Zhigilei is a professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Virginia. His research interests include multiscale modeling of materials behavior far from equilibrium, mechanisms of phase transformations, nanomaterials, and surface processes.

Google Scholar Computational Materials Group

Email [email protected]

Phone (434) 243-3582

Bi-Cheng Zhou

Associate Professor, Materials Science and Engineering

Currently Recruiting

My interests are in computational thermodynamics and kinetics of materials, including first-principles alloy theory, CALPHAD, theories of phase transformations, and nonequilibrium thermodynamics. These methods are applied to lightweight alloys, high-temperature materials, and corrosion.

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Email [email protected]