AMSEC Events and Seminars

Looking for Life on Mars (on Earth)

Presented on Monday, May 23, 2022 by Ken Williford, PhD

Astrobiologist, Blue Marble Space Institute of Science

Ken Williford is an astrobiologist with the Blue Marble Space Institute of Science whose research focuses on the co-evolution of life and planetary environments. For most of the last decade, Ken was located at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory where he served as Deputy Project Scientist for the Mars 2020 rover mission through design, assembly, test, launch, cruise to Mars, and early surface operations including the collection of the first samples destined for return from another planet. Ken recently relocated with his family from Los Angeles to Seattle, where he splits his time searching for signs of life on Mars and the meaning of life on Earth.

Radio Frequency Heating of Polymeric Composites

Presented on Thursday, January 20, 2022 (via Zoom) by Aniruddh Vashisth, PhD

Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering, University of Washington - Seattle

Carbonaceous materials such as carbon nanomaterials and carbon fibers have been shown to rapidly evolve heat in response to electromagnetic fields. Initial studies focused on the use of microwaves, but more recently, it was discovered that carbonaceous materials heat in response to electric fields in the radio frequency range (RF, 1 200 MHz). This is an exciting development because this range of radio frequencies is safe and versatile compared to microwaves. Such conductive fillers can be dispersed in polymeric matrices and heated rapidly to for processing applications where volumetric and/or targeted heating are needed. In this talk, we will discuss the fundamentals and applications of RF heating for curing thermosets, welding thermoplastics, and healing polymers with covalent adaptive networks. Insights into the crosslinking mechanisms during RF heating and curing were explored using reactive molecular dynamics (ReaxFF) simulations.

The Future of Aerospace Challenges and Opportunities in M&P

Presented on Friday, October 25, 2019 by Ashley Tracey, PhD

The Boeing Company

As the aerospace industry continues to grow and change, new marketplaces and challenges present new opportunities for materials and process engineers. This presentation will give a brief overview of what we’ve learned in the past 100 years of aerospace innovation, and then describe disrupters that are driving the need for new materials and processes. Some of these change drivers include the evolving marketplace, cost of energy, and non aerospace manufacturing advances. This presentation will discuss recent M&P developments and where breakthroughs are needed for future aerospace applications.

As an engineer at The Boeing Company, Dr. Tracey works on the Product Strategy and Future Airplane Development team for Boeing Commercial Airplanes with a focus on composites , materials characterization, and surface preparation and adhesion . Dr. Tracey is also actively involved with the Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering (SAMPE), volunteering for various roles both locally and nationally. In 2018, she was selected as the SAMPE Young Professional of the Year.

Soft and Hard Materials: Exciting Science or just a Fashion Statement?

Presented on Friday, February 22, 2019 by Robert K Szilagyi

Professor, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Montana State University - Bozeman

The presentation will explore the boundaries, or the lack thereof, between the biological, site differentiated [4Fe 4S] cluster chemistry and naturally doped Fe-containing phylloaluminosilicates. In biology, the Fe-S clusters take the role of electron conduits, redox centers for activation of stoichiometrically simple, but energetically challenging transformations, such as hydrogen update and evolution reaction, nitrogen fixation, CO/CO2 reversible conversion. These processes are at the heart of biological metabolism. A leading idea among many Origins of Life theories is that the Fe S clusters are reminiscent of pre-biotic catalytic centers from the Hadean Era at the dawn of the emergence of the simplest organisms. A contemporary geochemical system to the Hadean that has already garnered attention in Origins of Life theory is the family of layered aluminosilicates or clays. Transition-metal doped clays provide a remarkable synthetic platform for housing [4Fe 4S] clusters with potentially becoming biomimetic hard material synthons of soft material, i.e. protein environment encapsulated biological counterparts. A combined experimental and computational work will be presented for linking the two worlds of soft and hard materials, or bioinorganic chemistry and materials science.

Natural Armors and Weapons: Inspiration for Next Generation Materials

Presented on Monday, November 19, 2018 by Dwayne D Arola,  PhD 

Materials Science and Engineering, University of Washington

Natural materials are currently inspiring the design and development of engineered systems with exceptional properties. This area of research is commonly regarded as bioinspiration . Within the field of structural materials, there is a controversy concerning whether natural armors or natural weapons are a more potent source of inspiration. This talk will provide an introduction to examples of natural materials that fall within each of these two categories and the exciting properties they possess. In particular, the exceptional crack growth resistance of teeth, as well as the toughness of fish scales will be discussed, including the specific mechanisms responsible for their impressive mechanical behavior. Tangible applications of the findings will be presented, as well as a discussion of the primary obstacles to developing the next generation of advanced structural materials inspired by nature.

Theory-Guided Road Map for Electro-Optics and the Information Technology

Presented on Friday, May 11, 2018 by Larry Dalton, PhD

Emeritus Professor, Departments of Chemistry & Electrical Engineering, University of Washington

Chipscale integration of electronics and photonics is well recognized as a critical next step in the evolution of information technology (telecommunications, computing, sensing, metrology, imagining, and robotics). Electro-optics is central to such integration. We use multi-scale theoretical methods (quantum & statistical mechanics and beyond) to develop a road map for development of organic electro-optic materials and their integration into silicon photonic, plasmonic, photonic crystal, and meta material devices. This paradigm has already produced a factor of nearly 1000 improvement in electro-optic device performance yielding devices with drive voltage-length performance of 40 V-micrometers, single channel bandwidths of greater than 1 THz, energy efficiency for digital information processing of 1 femtojoule/bit, device footprints of 1 micrometer squared, and insertion loss of less than 2 dB. Such devices now permit gain to be realized in telecommunication systems and wireless signals to be converted directly to fiber optic transmission without the use of electronics. Extraordinary signal linearity has also been achieved. Theory has not only permitted the design of dramatically improved organic electro-optic materials but has also permitted simulation of the performance of materials in devices, elucidating the importance of interfacial interactions. Multi-scale theoretical simulations suggest that another factor of 500 improvement may be possible, permitting not only a revolution in electro-optic technology but also in photodetector technology through exploitation of optical rectification.

Toward Pervasive Nonlinear Optics

Presented on Tuesday, April 3, 2018 by Garth Simpson, PhD

Purdue University

The increasing availability of ultrafast laser sources provides ever broadening access to nontraditional light/matter interactions scaling nonlinearly with incident intensity, applications of which are described for addressing crystal analyses in structural biology and pharmaceutical sciences. In structural biology, determination of high-resolution structures of proteins serve as the foundation upon which rational drug design is built. Following discovery of new drug candidates, controlling or preventing crystallization is an essential step to ensure bioavailability and efficacy. In both applications, the unique symmetry relationships arising in nonlinear optical interactions provide exquisite selectivity for detection and quantification of chiral crystals. Topics to be covered in the presentation will include opportunities and challenges in designing nonlinear optical instrumentation capable of supporting routine, benchtop measurements in applications spanning structural biology, pharmaceutical sciences, and in vivo analyses.

Molecules to Manufacturing: Designing Structures, Products, and Solutions with Polymer Engineering

Presented on Monday, March 5, 2018 by Kyler Knowles, PhD

Western Washington University Alumnus

As materials scientists and engineers, we must understand how molecular structures scale to macroscopic properties of the products we design. Next generation materials must be higher performance, smarter, less costly, and lower impact. In this talk, we will dive into the depths of polymer science and engineering, discussing the molecular origins of a polymer's thermal and mechanical properties, and how they relate to performance of products from separation membranes to aerospace composites.

The Secret Life of Nanoparticles

Presented on Thursday, February 1, 2018 by Don Baer, PhD

Laboratory Fellow & Lead Scientist, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Engineered nanoparticles can be designed to have behaviors and properties that are helping to advance treatment of diseases, improve water quality, enable advanced electronics and produce sustainable energy at low costs. However, nano-objects, present fundamental synthesis, characterization and handling challenges that are often ignored or unrecognized by parts of the scientific and technical community. The frequent tendency of such particles to interact with surrounding media and to respond to environmental changes complicates understanding their properties as a function of time in different environments but also presents interesting opportunities. These behaviors impact research reliability and impact product lifetimes. Important issues include knowing about the rate at which they change after synthesis, during storage and processing, and in different media. This presentation will highlight some of the general behaviors of nanoparticles using research on Fe oxide-shell metal-core, ceria, and Ag nanoparticles.

Don Baer is a Laboratory Fellow and a lead scientist in the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL) at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Most of his research has explored the impact of surfaces and interfaces on material properties including understanding the behaviors of nanoparticles in aqueous and biological media, the surface chemistry and dissolution of oxides and minerals, and the role of interfacial chemistry on battery materials and stress corrosion cracking in metals. He has specialized in adapting surface sensitive tools to address complex problems and to provide quantitative information. Don received a BS in Physics and Carnegie Mellon University and a PhD in physics from Cornell University.