Eutectic systems have shaped mankind for millennia — bronze, solder, casting alloys — and yet, for all their industrial pedigree, the nanoscale mechanics of how they actually melt has remained stubbornly out of reach. Experimental resolution simply could not keep up with the physics. A new preprint from our group closes that gap, using in … Continue reading The nanoscale secrets of melting in eutectic systems
As the world accelerates its transition to electric vehicles and renewable energy, the pressure to recycle lithium-ion batteries efficiently has never been greater. At the heart of most recycling processes sits a fine black powder called black mass — a mixture of cathode and anode materials, binder residues, and metallic fragments recovered from spent batteries. … Continue reading Battery waste is worth billions!
A Chinese research team at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics has announced what could prove to be a remarkable leap forward in scientific instrumentation: an intelligent transmission electron microscope (TEM) capable of fully autonomous operation. The device, named Yuanyan-1, reportedly harnesses artificial intelligence to overcome longstanding limitations of conventional TEMs, which have depended on … Continue reading When electron microscopes think for themselves: has China just changed science forever?
I am deeply humbled and grateful to the American Chemical Society and the editors of ACS Materials Au for selecting me as part of the 2025 class of Rising Stars in Materials Science. This recognition came as a wonderful surprise, and I am truly thankful to be included alongside 13 other outstanding early-career researchers from … Continue reading Grateful to be among the 2025 Rising Stars in Materials Science
The sustainability debate in materials science sometimes asks the wrong questions. How do we recycle more aluminium & steel? These are legitimate — but they treat recyclability/sustainability as an afterthought, forcing materials never designed for circularity back into something useful at considerable cost and energy penalty: facts that Europe, specially, cannot anymore afford. The presence … Continue reading New recycling processes or new materials?
We are pleased to share our latest preprint, now available on arXiv: Unlocking nanoscale microstructural detail in aluminium alloys through differential phase contrast segmentation in STEM (arXiv:2603.11643). In this work, we show how differential phase contrast (DPC) imaging in scanning transmission electron microscopy can be turned into a powerful, quantitative tool for characterising the microstructures … Continue reading New Preprint: Unlocking Nanoscale Detail in Aluminium Alloys with DPC Segmentation
What will the materials powering tomorrow's clean energy systems, quantum computers, and deep-space missions actually be made of — and how do we design them? We are thrilled to share our latest featured article in The European magazine, where we explore how cutting-edge research is engineering matter at the atomic scale. From the nanolaminated MAX … Continue reading Atom-by-atom materials shaping future technology
We are excited to share that our recent perspective review, “The Legacy and the Future of Aluminum Alloys: Space Exploration and Extraterrestrial Settlement,” has been featured among the Top 20 Most Read Articles in the American Chemical Society (ACS) Materials Au! https://pubs.acs.org/action/showMostReadArticles?journalCode=amacgu Most Read Articles are refreshed daily and are based on full-text downloads (PDF … Continue reading Our Paper Among the Most Read Articles on ACS! 🚀
With great pleasure I am sharing with you our new review paper entitled "A snapshot of high-entropy alloy processing techniques and their effects on resulting mechanical properties" written by Mr. Christopher Matthews, a brilliant alumni student from the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Dakota School of Mines, now a Master Student in Metallurgy at … Continue reading A snapshot of high-entropy alloy processing techniques and their effects on resulting mechanical properties
Professor Peter J. Uggowitzer was never officially my mentor or supervisor -- neither during my studies nor in my former postdoc in Leoben. Yet, his presence and friendship over all these years have profoundly shaped both my personal and professional life. Through him, I learned not just metallurgy, but how to think metallurgy -- how … Continue reading The Spirit of Metallurgy at 75 Years Strong
Materials at Extremes 