Mecartney Research Group

11/29/2018 - The Mecartney group would like to welcom Minni Gorthy to the group! She is a PhD student from University of Canterbury, New Zealand to collaborative research on microscopy and characterization work.

10/20/2018 - Congradulations to Komal, Thomas, and Kristen for winning a prize at the ceramographic contest in MS&T 2018! Please see their beautiful work on the Album page and other entries of our group!

6/27/2018 - Somnath Mandal is selected to become a delegate for the President's Council of Students Advisors (PCSA), the student leadership committee within The American Ceramic Society (ACerS).

06/25/2018 – Kenta Ohtaki graduated with a PhD in MSE and accepted a post-doc position at the University of Hawaii. Congratulations to Kenta!

06/21/2018 – Prof. Mecartney gave an invited talk on “Using Multiple Phases to Enhance Flash Sintering of Ceramics” at the 7th International Congress on Ceramics in Brazil.

05/31/2018 – The Mecartney group would like to congratulate Austin Travis for finishing his dissertation defense on Thermal Conductivity and Kapitza Resistance of Ceramic Composites and becoming a doctor!

May 2018 – Professor Mecartney visited the Technion and the Weitzmann Institute in Israel.

05/19/2018 – Dania Alfeerawi presented a poster named "Synthesis of Single Phase High Entropy Multicomponent Monazite Incorporating Multiple Rare Earth Element Ions" at the UCI Undergraduate Research Symposium

05/11/2018 – The Mecartney group would like to congratulate Kenta Ohtaki for finishing his dissertation defense on Radiation Damage Behavior in Multiphase Ceramics (YSZ, Al2O3 and MgAl2O4) and the Effect of Heterointerfaces and becoming a doctor!

04/15/2018 – Congratulations to Jie Shen for accepting admission into PhD program in MSE at UCI!

04/11/2018 – Kristen Wong joined the group as an undergraduate researcher. Welcome, Kristen!

04/02/2018 – The Mecartney group would like to welcome Nadjia Motley (B.S. MSE from University of Maryland, College Park) as an MSE PhD student.

1/21/2018 – Kenta Ohtaki and Austin Travis attended ICACC and gave oral presentations. Respectively titled "XX" and "Modeling the Thermal Conductivity of UN/U3Si2 Composites."

1/19/2018 – Kenta Ohtaki, Austin Travis and David Kok attended the ACerS winter workshop in Daytona Beach, Florida.

1/17/2018 – Austin Travis and Kenta Ohtaki attended the 2018 EAM Conference and both gave oral presentations.

1/15/2018 – Congratulations to David Kok for receiving the Ludo Frevel Crystallography Scholarship from the International Centre for Diffraction Data. 2017/2018 – Professor Mecartney selected to serve on the Board of Trustees for the Ceramic and Glass Industry Foundation.

12/08/2017 – The Mecartney group welcomes Komal Syed (B.S. MSE from University of Maryland, College Park) as a new PhD student in MSE after completing her M.S. with Professor Pan. She was also awarded the PROVOST fellowship.

10/01/2017 – Jie Shen and Thomas Kaufman were accepted into accelerated MS program and were awarded the undergraduate research fellowship.

10/19/2017 – Thomas Kaufman and Dania Alfeerawi attended the UCI Undergraduate Research Symposium.

10/15/2017 – Professor Mecartney elected to the American Ceramic Society (ACerS) Board of Directors.

09/25/2017 – the Mecartney group welcoms Somnath Mandal as a newly-joined PhD student. Somnath finished his masters degree in the Indian Institute of Technology (BHU) Varanasi and his undergraduate degree in the Government College of Engineering and Ceramic Technology, Kolkata.

8/24/2017 – Austin Travis (and coauthors Josh White and Andy Nelson from LANL) just published a new paper “Fabrication and thermophysical property characterization of UN/U3Si2 composite fuel forms” accepted for publication in Journal of Nuclear Materials. Congratulations!

7/07/2017 – David Kok and Yingjie Yang attended the 2017 ECerS summer school and conference. David Kok gave an oral presentation.

07/01/2017 – Thomas Kaufman was awarded the summer undergraduate research fellowship.

June 2017 –May 2020– Professor Mecartney as PI awarded $349,422 grant on “Flash Sintering of Multiphase Ceramics” from CMMI in NSF.

06/30/2017 – Hemanth Kumar completes his M.S. in MSE and accepts a position at Intel in Portland. Zhonghan Yang also graduates with his M.S. in MSE and plans further graduate studies.

03/30/2017 – Yingjie Yang was awarded the Henry Samueli Fellowship from the Department of Materials Science.

03/16/2017 – the Mecartney group would like to welcome Yingjie Yang (B.S. in MSE from Shanghai Jiaotong University) to join the group as a PhD student in MSE.

1/13/2017 – The Mecartney group would like to welcome Yingjie Yang as a rotation student.

12/26/2016 – Kenta Ohtaki attended the winter school for transmission electron microscopy held in Arizona State University.

12/20/2016 - Hugo Gonzalez graduates with his M.S. in MSE, and moves later from 3M/Ceradyne to a new job with Glidewell Dental Ceramics.

11/9/16 – Kenta Ohtaki and Austin Travis attended the 2016 American Nuclear Society Winter Meeting and both gave oral presentations.

10/27/2016 – Austin Travis , Kenta Ohtaki, and David Kok attended the Materials Science & Technology 2016 conference and gave oral presentations.

10/26/2016 – Professor Mecartney is the keynote speaker at the ASM International Women in Materials Engineering (WIME) Breakfast, MS&T, Salt Lake City, presenting on “Changing the Face of Engineering”.

10/15/2016 – Congratulations to David Kok for receiving the Graduate Excellence in Materials Science (GEMS) Diamond Award from the American Ceramics Society.

10/01/2016 – Congratulations to Thomas Kaufman on being elected president of the Materials Advantage Chapter.

10/01/2016 – Congratulations to David Kok for receiving the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowshipfrom the US Department of Defense.

08/05/2016 – David Kok attended the Gordon Research Conferences (Ceramics, Solid State Studies in Mount Holyoke, MA) and gave an oral presentation.

8/2/2016 – Kenta Ohtaki attended the Microscopy & Microanalysis conference and gave an oral presentation.

8/1/2016 – Austin Travis attended the 2016 MeV (Modeling, Experimentation, and Validation) School at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

7/24/2016 – Kenta Ohtaki gave an oral presentation at the 2016-Microscopy & Microanalysis, Columbus, Ohio.

06/25/2016 – Joanna Leadbetter and Michael Lu both graduated with their M.S. in MSE. Michael was accepted a job with ASML-HMI and Joanne with Brooks Applied Labs in Seattle area. Stoney Middleton, B.S. in MSE, accepts admission to the M.S. in MSE at UCI.

May 2016-April 2020 – Professor Mecartney as PI awarded NSF DMR “Thermal Conductivity and Grain Boundary Energy of Interfaces in Multiphase Ceramics” grant for $490,973. 03/08/2016 – David Kok gave an oral presentation at the Electric Field Assisted Sintering and Related Phenomena Far from Equilibrium Conference in Tomar, Portugal.

4/13/2016 – Good luck to Kenta Ohtaki on the Au irradiation experiments at GSI Helmholz Center for Heavy Ion Research!

7/4/2016 – Austin Travis researches at Los Alamos National Laboratory with Dr. David Andersson and Dr. Andrew Nelson.

6/14/2016 – Austin Travis gave a poster presentation at the 2016 Nuclear Fuel and Structural Materials embedded topical at the summer American Nuclear Society meeting titled “Continuum Scale Modeling of Thermal Conductivity in Hyperstoichiometric Uranium Dioxide.”

5/24/2016 – Austin Travis advanced to candidacy for the Doctor of Philosophy in Chemical and Biochemical Engineering. Congratulations to Austin!

04/09/2016 – Kenta Ohtaki gave an oral presentation in the Southern California Society of Microscopy & Microanalysis.

12/15/2015 – Congratulations to Kenta Ohtaki for his proposal for beam time being approved at UNILAC GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research, Germany 2016: Experiment UMat Mecartney G-PAC42: "Radiation damage in multiphase ceramics and the effect of grain size".

10/01/2015 – Professor Mecartney selected as the UCI DECADE faculty mentor for diversity in ChE and MSE. 9/18/2015 – Kenta Ohtaki advanced to candidacy for the Doctor of Philosophy in Materials Science. Congratulations to Kenta!

9/14/15 – Austin Travis researches at Los Alamos National Laboratory with Dr. David Andersson and Dr. Andrew Nelson.

August 2015 - July 2019 – Professor Mecartney PI awarded $885,834 U.S. Department of Education Graduate Assistantships in Areas of National Need (GAANN) Fellowships for ChE and MSE grant. Congratulations to David Kok Fellowship!

8/14/15 – Kenta Ohtaki, Austin Travis , and David Kok attended the Materials Science & Technology 2015 conference. Kenta and Austin gave oral presentations.

06/31/2015 – Weicai Cao completed his PhD in MSE then accepted a position at Intel in Portland. Neshat Jalaili Heravi graduates with her M.S. in ChE and accepts employment at Statek Co, in the OC. 01/10/2015 – The Mecartney group would like to welcome David Kok (B.S. in Chemistry, Cal Poly Pomona) for joining the Mecartney group as a PhD student in MSE.

11/17/2014 - David Kok was interviewed by AAAS: 5 Questions for a Scientist(Link)

10/27/2014 - Dr. Peter E. D. Morgan's report "The Trouble with Activation Energies" is now available (Link)

10/17/2014 - The Mecartney Research Group would like to welcome a master student Joanne Leadbetter

10/15/2014 - Congratulations to Kenta Ohtaki for winnning the second place in the Material Advantage Graduate Student Poster Competition at MS&T

10/15/2014 - Kara Phillips and Kenta Ohtaki gave a poster presentation at MS&T.

10/12/2014 - Congratulations to Kenta Ohtaki for winnning the first place of ACerS Ceramographic competition SEM category at MS&T

10/12/2014 - Congratulations to Kara Phillips for winning ACerS Nuclear & Environmental Technology Division: Student Stipend

10/11/2014 - Kara Phillips and David Kok attended PCSA meeting

9/23/2014 - The Mecartney Research Group would like to welcome a PhD rotation student David Kok

8/23/2014 - Congratulations to Neshat Heravi for her award to attend the 2014

08/20/14 – David Kok , gave an oral presentation titled “Multiphase Ceramics for Enhanced Mechanical Properties of Nuclear Fuel” on the UC Irvine Summer Research Program Research Symposium.


7/28/2014 - Austin Travis and Kenta Ohtaki gave a poster presentations at Denver X-ray conference in Big Sky


7/20/2014 - Kara Phillips gave a poster presentation at the 2014 Ceramics Gordon Research Conference in Mt. Holyoke


7/17/2014 - Jesse Angle, Andy Nelson (LANL collaborator) and Prof. Mecartney just had a new paper "Thermal Measurements and Computational Simulations of Three-Phase (CeO2 - MgAl2O4 - CeMgAl11O19) and Four-Phase (3Y-TZP - Al2O3 - MgAl2O4 - LaPO4) Composites as Surrogate Inert Matrix Nuclear Fuel" accepted for publication in Journal of Nuclear Materials.


7/16/2014 - Jesse Angle (and coauthors Jim Steppan, Patrick Thompson, and Prof. Mecartney) are reviewing the galley proofs of their paper to appear in the Journal of the European Ceramic Society, "Parameters influencing thermal shock resistance and ionic conductivity of 8 mol% yttria-stabilized zirconia (8YSZ) with dispersed second phases of alumina or mullite."


7/01/2014 - Congratulations to Kara Phillips for her award to attend the 2014 Ceramics Gordon Research Conference in Mt. Holyoke, MA July 20-25, 2014 where she will present a poster on her work on design of multiphase ceramics for nuclear fuel. Professor Mecartney will also attend and give a poster on Jesse's research on enhanced diffusion in ceramics exposed to water vapor.

07/01/2014 – Professor Mecartney promoted to Step VI, Full Professor (Advancement to Step VI for a Full Professor is considered much like a promotion and is a “milestone” for the professorial career). Congratulations! 7/01/2014 - Congratulations to Kenta Ohtaki for his award to attend the Denver X-ray Conference and workshops in Yellowstone July 27-31 and present a poster on his and Neshat's research on X-ray analysis of solid solution of doped LaPO4 monazite. Austin Travis will also attend and present a poster on his research on CeMgAl11O19 magnetoplumbite ceramics. Austin will also be attending the American Chemical Society in San Francisco in early August to learn about current research in catalysis.

6/30/14 - The Mecartney Research Group would like to welcome Breakthrough SJC high school students German Guzman and Francelia Lievanos

6/23/14 - Manuscript "Parameters Influencing Thermal Shock Resistance and Ionic Conductivity of 8 mol% Yttria-stabilized Zirconia (8YSZ) with Dispersed Second Phases of Alumina or Mullite" accepted for publication by the Journal of the European Ceramic Society.


6/23/14 - Kara Phillips and David Kok are now members of Acers's President's Council of Student Advisors (PCSA)


6/23/14 - The Mecartney Research Group would like to welcome Ph.D. rotation students David Kok and Shawn Kirby for the summer quarter.


6/06/14 - Congraturations to Jesse Angle for graduating from the Ph.D. program and going to University of Illinois as a postdoctal resercher. He accepted a job at Exponent in the Bay Area after completing the postdoc.


3/31/14 - The Mecartney Research Group would like to welcome ChE Ph.D. student Austin Travis (B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Syracuse University) to the group.


3/14/14 - The Mecartney Research Group would like to thank Professor Shen Dillon from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for visiting UC Irvine, meeting with graduate students and giving such a wonderful talk in our weekly department seminar. (Link)


3/7/14 - Kenta Ohtaki and Neshat Heravi gave a poster presentations at the UC Irvine Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Graduate Recruitment day.


3/7/14 - Kara Phillips Eric Casavant, Russell Clayton and Austin Travis gave a poster presentations at the UC Irvine Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Graduate Recruitment day.


2/14/14 - The Mecartney Research Group would like to thank Dr. Sungbo Shim from Rolls Royce High Temperature Composite in Huntington Beach, CA for visiting UC Irvine, meeting with graduate students and giving such a fantastic talk in our weekly department seminar. (Link)


2/8/14 - Jesse Angle and Merna Salama gave a poster presentations at the Southern California Society for Microscopy and Microanalysis (SCSMM) Full Day Symposium held at UC Irvine. (Link)


1/30/14 - Jesse Angle gave an oral presentation at the 38th International Conference and Exposition on Advanced Ceramics and Composites titled "Enhanced Diffusion of Oxygen in Alumina Exposed to Water Vapor." (Link)


1/29/14 - Jesse Angle gave a poster presentation at the 38th International Conference and Exposition on Advanced Ceramics and Composites titled "Proton Assisted Diffusion in Oxides." (Link)


1/20/14 - Congratulations to Merna Salama, Patrick Ngo and Rea Reyes for being appointed an Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) Fellow for the 2013-2014 academic year.

January 2014-Decembr 2016 – Professor Mecartney PI awarded $800,000 DOE NEUP grant on “Multiphase Nanocrystalline Ceramic Concept” for Nuclear Fuel with LANL, UC San Diego and UTenn., Knoxville.


1/6/14 - The Mecartney Research Group would like to welcome PhD rotation students Eric Casavant, Russell Clayton and Austin Travis.


1/1/14 - Happy New Year!

12/20/13 - Happy Holidays!


12/1/13 - The Mecartney Research Group would like to welcome Ph.D. student Kara Phillips to the group.


11/28/13 - Happy Thanksgiving!(Link)


11/15/13 - Prof. Mecartney gave a poster presentation titled "Multiphase ceramics for nuclear fuel" at the National Academies Keck Futures Initiatives, "The Future of Advanced Nuclear Technologies," a program of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine.


11/4/13 - Here are a few pictures from MS&T of Prof. Mecartney, Jesse Angle, Merna Salama, and some friends and family.


10/30/13 - Jesse Angle gave a presentation at MS&T titled "Synthesis and Characterization of LaCrAl11O19 (Magnetoplumbite)." (Link)


10/29/13 - Prof. Mecartney gave a presentation at MS&T titled "Dislocation Accommodation for Grain Boundary Sliding in Multiphase Superplastic Ceramics." (Link)


10/26/13 - Congratulations to Prof. Mecartney who became an ACers class of 2014 Fellow. She accepted this distinguished award at the annual ACers awards banquet.


10/26/13 - Merna Salama, Jesse Angle, and Prof. Mecartney traveled to Montreal, Canada to attend the Materials Science & Technology Conference & Exhibition (MS&T). (Link)


10/22/13 - Congratulations to Jesse Angle for receiving a UC Irvine Associated Graduate Students Travel Grant which will be used for Materials Science & Technology Conference & Exhibition in Montreal, Canada. (Link)


10/18/13 - The Mecartney Research Group would like to thank Dr. George Wicks (Ret.) from Savannah River National Laboratory for visiting UC Irvine and giving such an enlightening talk in our weekly department seminar. (Link)


10/11/13 - Manuscript "Water Vapor-Enhanced Diffusion in Alumina" is now available for online in the Journal of the American Ceramic Society. (Link)


10/7/13 - The Mecartney Research Group would like to welcome PhD rotation students Max Kaganyuk, Kara Phillips and Jill Pestana.


10/5/13 - The Mecartney Research Group would like to welcome Masters student Neshat Heravi to the group.



10/2/13 - The Mecartney Research Group would like to welcome undergradute student Rea Reyes to the group.



9/20/13 - Congratulations to Jesse Angle for receiving the UCI Fletcher Jones Foundation Fellowship for the 2013/2014 academic year. (Link)


9/19/13 - The Mecartney Research Group would like to welcome Ph.D. student Kenta Ohtaki (B.S. in Materials Science from the Tokyo University of Science) to the group.


9/17/13 - Prof. Mecartney visits Prof. Corinne Packard at the Colorado School of Mines in Colorado and gave a seminar titled "Development of Monazite Ceramics for Fuel Cell and Nuclear Applications."


9/16/13 - Prof. Mecartney visits Prof. Rishi Raj at the University of Colorado, Boulder in Colorado and gave a seminar titled "Development of Multiphase Oxide Ceramics."


9/14/13 - Manuscript "Comparison of two-phase thermal conductivity models with experiments on dilute ceramic composites" is now available for online in the Journal of the American Ceramic Society. (Link)


9/12/13 - Prof. Mecartney attends the Packards Fellowships for Science and Engineering 25th Anniversary Reunion in Denver Colorado and gives a poster presentation titled "Proton Assisted Diffusion in Oxides (Does Steam Damage Ceramics?). (Link)


9/9/13 - Congratulations to Jesse Angle for being selected a finalist for this years Graduate Excellence in Materials Science (GEMS) Award given at the Materials Science & Technology 2013 (MS&T).


9/6/13 - Prof. Mecartney gave a seminar titled "Monazite LaPO4 Ceramics for Fuel Cell and Nuclear Applications and Water Vapor Accelerated Diffusion in Al2O3" for the Chemical and Materials Physics (ChaMP) Program at UC Irive.


9/3/13 - Prof. Mecartney gave a seminar titled "Monazite Ceramics for Fuel Cell and Nuclear Applications" at Alfred University in New York, visited with Dean Doreen Edwards and discussed collabrative research with Prof. Yiquan Wu, Prof. Scott Misture and Prof. Sundaram.


9/1/13 - Congratulations to Danju Men (Ph.D. 2012) for her new postion at Apple.


8/19/13 - Prof. Mecartney visits Prof. Susan Krumdieck and Catherine Bishop at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand and gave a seminar titled "Dislocation Accommodated Deformation in Mullite and Superplastic Multiphase Ceramics".


8/15/13 - Manuscript "Water Vapor Enhanced Diffusion in Alumina" accepted for publication by the Journal of the American Ceramic Society.


8/10/13 - Prof. Mecartney visits the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio where she gave a seminar titled "LaPO4 Monazite Research and Water Vapor Accelerated Diffusion in Al2O3" and discussed research projects with their top scientists including Dr. Randall Hay, Dr. Michael Cinibulk and UES scientist Dr. John Porter.


8/9/13 - Manuscript "Comparison of two-phase thermal conductivity models with experiments on dilute ceramic composites" is now available for EarlyView in the Journal of the American Ceramic Society.


8/9/13 - Manuscript "Radiation Damage of LaMgAl11O19 and CeMgAl11O19 Magnetoplumbite" is now avalible online at the Journal of the American Ceramic Society. (Link)


8/7/13 - Jesse Angle visits Prof. Yoshikazu Suzuki at the Univerisity of Tsukuba in Japan. (Link)


7/15/15 - Manuscript "Laser Annealing of Nanocrystalline Gold Nanowires" is now avalible online at the ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces. (Link)


7/10/13 - Prof. Mecartney visits Prof. Yuichi Ikuhara at the Crystal Interface Laboratory at the University of Tokyo in Japan and gave a seminar titled "Dislocation Accommodated Deformation in Mullite and Superplastic Multiphase Ceramics". (Link)


7/4/13 - Manuscript "Radiation Damage in Multiphase Ceramics" is now avalible online at the Journal of Nuclear Materials. (Link)


7/4/13 - Congratulations to Merna Salama for being appointed an Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) Fellow for the 2013-2014 academic year.


6/19/13 - Prof. Mecartney travels to the National Science Foundation (NSF) in Washington DC to attend a Ceramics DMR workstop and gave a poster presentation on current research.


6/14/13 - Jesse Angle give a poster presentation at The Graduate University for Advanced Studies in Japan on his proposed summer project. (Jesse's Poster)


6/10/13 - Jesse Angle arrives in Japan for his summer appointment at the University of Tokyo through a National Science Foundation East Asia & Pacific Summer Institutes (NSF EAPSI) Fellowship.


5/18/13 - Patrick Ngo and Merna Salama gave a poster presentations at the nineteenth annual UCI Undergraduate Research Symposium (Merna's Poster) (Patick's Poster).


5/11/13 - American Ceramic Society Names Prof. Martha Mecartney a 2013 Fellow. (Link)


4/24/13 - Prof. Mecartney visits Prof. Robin Grimes in the Centre for Nuclear Engineering at Imperial College London Director and gave a seminar titled "Research on Muiltphase Ceramics and Water Vapor Sintering."

March 2013 – Jung-Yun Kim graduated with a PhD in MSE and is now working with Apple.

Fall/Winter 2012-2013 - Professor Mecartney takes sabbatical leave at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

August, 2012 – Professor Mecartney serves as Chair of the Solid State Studies in Ceramics Gordon Research Conference.

June 2012 – Dan-Ju Men graduated with her PhD in MSE and now working at Apple.

March 2012 - Chris Hoo graduated with his PhD in MSE and took a job in industry as well as a part time lecturer in MSE at UCI.