Our lab focuses on understanding the physical properties of materials with complex structures at multiple scales (from nano- to macro-scales) via a combination of theoretical analysis, numerical simulations, and experimental characterizations. We are interested in a variety of materials and properties. The goal is to uncover or enhance material performance characteristics for industrial, medical, and aerospace applications.
Multiple fully funded Ph.D. positions in computational nanomaterials and mechanical metamaterials are available in our group. Qualified candidates must send a CV with a list of publications, a research statement, and BS & MS transcripts to PI Ma at Jihong.Ma@uvm.edu. Only selected candidates will receive a reply. †
Recent News
05/2024 Thomas Field has won the outstanding 2024 ME Undergraduate Research Award (two awardees) and the Engineer of the Year Award (one awardee per department). Congratulations, Thomas!
03/2024 Joel Pyfrom has won the prestigious Fisher Fellowship! The Fisher Fellowship is provided to engineering graduate students who are Vermont residents. Congratulations again, Joel!
03/2024 Joel Pyfrom has won the prestigious Vermont Space Grant Consortium Graduate Research Fellowship. Congratulations, Joel!
01/2024 Amir Rajabpoor Alisepahi has won the SPIE travel grant. He will give a talk at the SPIE Smart Structures + Nondestructive. Congratulations, Amir!
01/2024 Our paper, titled In-Gap Edge and Domain-Wall States in Largely Perturbed Phononic Su–Schrieffer–Heeger Lattices has been published by Crystals. Congratulations to all the authors!
11/2023 Dr. Ma was invited to present her work at the Department of Mechanical Engineering Seminar at the University of South Carolina. Thank you, Dr. Downey, for the invitation!
10/2023 Our paper, titled Breakdown of Conventional Winding Number Calculation in One-Dimensional Lattices with Interactions Beyond Nearest Neighbors, has been accepted by Communications Physics. Congratulations to all the authors!
10/2023 Dr. Ma was invited to present her work at the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Seminar at Syracuse University, New York. Thank you, Dr. Shan, for the invitation!
09/2023 Dr. Ma was invited to present her work at the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Seminar at the University at Buffalo, New York. Thank you, Dr. Nouh, for the invitation!
07/2023 Dr. Ma was invited to present her work for the Complex Mechanical Metamaterials workshop held at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
03/2023 Dr. Ma has been selected as a Summer Faculty Fellow by the Air Force Research Laboratory.
03/2023 Our team, led by Drs. Ma and Huston, have received funding from the NASA EPSCoR to work on metamaterials. Congratulations!
01/11/2023 Dr. Ma was invited to give a seminar talk at the Air Force Research Laboratory. Thank you, Dr. Kavir Dass, for your invitation!
01/2023 Our CNMS user facility proposal has been approved.
01/01/2023 Our team, led by Drs. Ma and Huston, have received funding from the U.S. Semiconductor Research Corporation to research electron migration.
11/03/2022 Dr. Ma presented the Dynamics of meta-sandwich beams at IMECE in Columbus, OH.
10/06/2022 Dr. Ma was invited to give a technical presentation at 3M. Thank you, Dr. Jiadi Fan, for your invitation!
09/2022 Our team, led by Dr. Jihong Ma, has received a US-DOE grant titledMulti‐scale Study of Self‐Healing Polymers to Enhance Carbon Dioxide Removal. This project will be conducted via a collaboration between the UVM (led by Dr. Ma) and the University of Alabama (led by Prof. Jason Bara, Professor of Chemical Engineering) together in collaboration with Oak Ridge National Laboratory. News for both PI Ma and PI Cotts can be found here. Dr. Ma’s interview can be found here.
09/2022 Our team, led by Prof. Benjamin Cotts, Assistant Professor of Chemistry/Biochemistry at Middlebury Colledge, has received a US-DOE grant titled Elucidating transient localized disorder of semiconductor nanocrystals. Congrats, Dr. Cotts! Dr. Cotts and Dr. Ma will be working on this project together in collaboration with Argonne National Laboratory. Dr. Cotts’ interview can be found here.
09/19/2022 Dr. Ma’s review article, titled Phonon Engineering of Micro- and Nanophononic Crystals and Acoustic Metamaterials: A Review has been accepted by Small Science. Thank you, Editor-in-Chief Dr. Ulf Scheffler and former editor Dr. Debora Walker, for your kind invitation. Also appreciated are reviewers’ constructive suggestions. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the fundamentals and identifies gaps in the development of phononic crystals and acoustic metamaterials at small scales.
08/2022 Our team, led by Prof. Matthew White in the Department of Physics at UVM, has received the prestigious NSF PIRE award entitled PIRE: US-Japan Partnership in Excitonic Soft Materials for Clean Energy. This project will be a collaboration between UVM and the University of Oklahoma in the U.S., and Yamagata University and Osaka University in Japan. Dr. Ma is leading the computational effort.
08/16/2022 Dr. Ma was invited to give a technical presentation at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Thank you, Dr. Stephan Irle, for your invitation!
03/07/2022 Dr. Ma presented Wave propagation in meta-sandwich beams at SPIE in Long Beam, CA.
02/21/2022 Our paper titled Symmetry Effect on the Dynamic Behaviors of Sandwich Beams with Periodic Face Sheets has been accepted by Composite Structures. Congratulations!
01/2022 Dr. Ma has received the NSF EPSCoR Fellowship and will conduct her proposed research at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.