People

Professor Scully’s group is dedicated to studying all forms of corrosion and materials degradation for the defense, aerospace, energy, biological, nuclear, oil and gas industries. We are a cross-disciplinary team that combines electrochemistry, metallgury, and materials science to understand the fundemental of corrosion, and provides the means and suggestions to accurately measure corrosion properties. Our particular areas of interest include high entropy alloy development, hydrogen embrittlement, stress corrosion cracking, localized corrosion, passivity of materials, and molten salt electrochemistry. 

We are a group of passionate and friendly corrosion scientists, students, and engineers. If you are a prospective undergraduate student, summer intern, graduate student, or post-doctoral researcher, please feel free to contact Prof. Scully @ JRS8D@VIRGINIA.EDU. 

Principle Investigator

John R. Scully

Charles Henderson Chaired Professor of Materials Science and Engineering Co-Director of Center for Electrochemical Science and Engineering

Scully's primary research interest is to understand the relationships between a material's structure and composition and properties related to environmental degradation. His historical current focus is on advanced aluminum, magnesium, titanium, ferrous and nickel-based alloys, as well as stainless steels and aluminum-based intermetallic compounds.
Google Scholar Center for Electrochemical Science and Engineering Scully Research Group
Email jrs8d@virginia.edu

Postdoctoral Researchers / Research Scientist

Dr. Elena Romanovskaia

Research Associate
Belarusian State Technological University B.S. Environmental Engineering (2009); M.S. Inorganic Chemistry (2012) Institute of General and Inorganic Chemistry of National Academy of Sciences of Belarus (IGIC NAS of Belarus); Doctorate of Physical Chemistry (2015) Dr. Romanovskaia joined Scully research group as PDRA in April 2021. In Scully’s group, Elena works under DOE Energy Frontiers Research Project (EFRC) focusing on investigating the oxide layer formation/dissolution kinetics and its electrochemical properties for the molten salts and RTILs. Additional work involves in-situ and ex-situ studies of the passivity of nickel base superalloys and MPEAs in aqueous solutions using in-situ and ex-situ methods. In her free time, Elena loves traveling, singing, learning languages watching and doing sport.
UVA Email Google Scholar
Email ggd2dr@virginia.edu

Dr. Valentin Romanovski

Research Scientist
Belarusian State Technological University, B.S. Engineer-Chemist-Ecologist (2004); Belarusian State Technological University, Ph.D. Chemical Engineering (2008); Dr. Romanovski joined Scully research group as a research scientist in Feburary 2022. In 2018, Dr. Romanovski was a leading expert in the Scientific and Research Center of Functional Nano-Ceramics, National University of Science and Technology MISIS (Moscow, Russia). He was also the senior researcher at Institute of General and Inorganic Chemistry, National Academy of Sciences of Belarus. His research expertise ranges from chemical engineering, environmental engineering, materials engineering, to corrosion science and engineering.
Google Scholar
Email RVD9AR@VIRGINIA.EDU

Graduate Students

Angela Y. Gerard

Ph.D. Candidate
B.S. Chemistry, Radford University, 2016. Angela is utilizing various AC and DC electrochemistry techniques and ex-situ and in-situ characterization techniques to understand the passivity of multiple principal element alloys (MPEAs) during aqueous oxidation. Particularly investigations are focused on understanding the nature of the oxide film, the fate of alloying elements, and how beneficial alloying elements like Cr affect MPEA passivity and how it compares to conventional alloys, like stainless steels.

Lauren Singer

Ph.D. Candidate
Bucknell University / Mechanical Engineering Lauren graduated from Bucknell University in 2018 with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and a minor in Physics. She performed research on the processing of electrospun polymeric nanofibers at NIST, which led to her interest in additive manufacturing. She is currently researching hydrogen interactions in additively manufactured stainless steels. Outside the lab, her interests include playing volleyball and listening to classic rock.