Four Engineering Graduate Students Receive Research Fellowships with Los Alamos National Laboratory

Sept. 26, 2023 - The UCI Samueli School of Engineering has announced its 2023-24 recipients of the UCI-LANL-SoCalHub Research Fellowship. These fellowships are designed to support UCI engineering graduate students working in areas of common interest with the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and provide a mechanism to bridge research and training between the two institutions for future career paths and long-term collaboration.

The UCI-LANL research fellowships were initiated in 2022, as part of the collaborative partnership between the UCI school of engineering and Los Alamos. This partnership aimed to increase research activity between UCI faculty and DOE national laboratories, create educational opportunities for UCI students and enhance workforce development in critical areas of research of national interest. Four engineering UCI-LANL research fellows were funded in the first year of the program.

In 2023, an additional fellowship was supported by SoCalHub, a program led by the UCI Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and funded by the UC Office of the President to increase connections between the five south UC campuses and the UC-managed national laboratories. As a result, the fellowships were renamed the “UCI-LANL-SoCalHub Research Fellowships.” Fellows will receive co-mentorship from an engineering professor and a LANL scientist. They have the opportunity to spend time at LANL and use its unique facilities and expertise for their research and training.  

“It is gratifying to see how this program has grown and matured over the past year,” said Efi Foufoula-Georgiou, associate dean for research and innovation. “The inaugural fellows have already established a community of young scholars with deep connections to LANL and opportunities they could not have had without this fellowship. The demand for these fellowships is increasing dramatically and we hope to be able to create more opportunities in the future.”

Here are this year’s research fellows:

Esther Hessong, Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Mentors: Tim Rupert, UCI; Saryu Fensin, LANL

In her research, Hessong will investigate the relationships between microstructure and bulk properties by studying the grain boundaries in nanocrystalline Cu-rich alloys, with a focus on understanding how the chemical patterning and structural ordering affect the mechanical behavior. She looks forward to extending the work by probing the radiation damage response of these alloys. “I am eager to work alongside the staff scientists and run experiments with highly-specialized microscopes at Los Alamos,” said Hessong. “Microstructural features directly impact a material's bulk properties. A high density of features such as grain boundaries in nanocrystalline alloys are an opportunity to engineer these materials for a wide range of applications, targeting enhanced strength and damage resistance.”

Weilin Guan, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Mentors: SungWoo Nam, UCI; Jinkyoung Yoo, LANL

Guan is interested in facilitating the development of nanomaterials for energy-harvesting in extreme environments and other next-generation energy solutions. His research will focus on nano energy harvesting systems based on multifunctional 2D materials and their heterostructures. The lightweight and compactness of the atomically thin 2D materials provide the ability to reduce the device dimension and enable unprecedented functionality compared to devices conventionally fabricated using bulk materials. He is excited about the opportunity. “The collaboration with LANL via mentorship from LANL scientists and access to state-of-the-art LANL facilities will provide me with resources to advance my research on nanomaterials.”

Tohid Rajaei Moosavy, Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Mentors: Kai He, UCI; Sergei Ivanov, LANL

In his research, Moosavy will investigate single crystal ferromagnetic materials by first synthesizing the materials using an air free technique and then characterizing them with state-of-the-art cryogenic and Lorentz transmission electron microscopy techniques. The insights gained will assist in improving technology in the field of microelectronics. Moosavy is looking forward to receiving mentorship from leading experts in the field at LANL. “Their guidance along with the guidance of my principal investigator, Professor Kai He, will accelerate my Ph.D. research and help me realize my goal of continuing to conduct research after graduation either in research development or academia.”

Joan Vendrell Gallart, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Mentors: Kia Solmaz, UCI; Russell Bent, LANL

The concept of micro-grids is gaining prominence due to the expanding use of renewable energies and the increasing need for reliable, independent electrical systems. Vendrell Gallart’s research focuses on the modeling of optimal resource allocation problems in power grid systems. “What excites me the most is the opportunity to collaborate with LANL, a historic laboratory, and specifically with my mentor Russell Bent. He is not only an expert in combinatorial optimization but has also been working on modeling real-world problems with practical applications for the country. This collaboration will greatly contribute to my growth as a researcher and my acquisition of valuable knowledge.”

– Lori Brandt