![\"Journal](\"https:\/\/www.asme.org\/getmedia\/02a873f2-7796-427f-a9a8-421a6bec04c6\/image20260107113518(1).jpg?width=143&height=143&ext=.jpg\")
We are excited to announce that the ASME Journal of Vibrations and Acoustics (JVA) invites submissions for a special issue on Topological Mechanics: Exploiting Geometric Phase in Mechanical & Acoustic Waves. If you are interested in highlighting your research in topological acoustics, please submit your article by August 16, 2026, following this link: Special Issue on Topological Mechanics: Exploiting Geometric Phase in Mechanical & Acoustic Waves – ASME<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\r\n <\/p>\r\n <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n 06\/2025 Dr. Ma was invited to give a talk at the ETOPIM13: 13th International Conference on Elastic, Electrical, Transport, and Optical Properties of Inhomogeneous Media – Sciencesconf.org<\/a><\/span> at the CUNY Advanced Science Research Center, New York. Thank you, Profs. Andrea Alu and Emil Prodan, for the invitation!<\/strong><\/p>\r\n <\/p>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n <\/p>\r\n 04\/2025 Our paper, titled Inverse design of topological diatomic lattices based on complex phase locus<\/a>, has been published in Frontiers in Acoustics. Congratulations!<\/strong><\/p>\r\n <\/p>\r\n 06\/2024 Dr. Ma was invited to give a talk at the PASC24<\/a> conference in Zurich, Switzerland.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n <\/p>\r\n <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n 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!<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n <\/p>\r\n <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n 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!<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n <\/p>\r\n <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n 03\/2024 Joel Pyfrom has won the prestigious Vermont Space Grant Consortium Graduate Research Fellowship. Congratulations, Joel!<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n 01\/2024 Amir Rajabpoor Alisepahi has won the SPIE travel grant. He will give a talk at the SPIE Smart Structures + Nondestructive. Congratulations, Amir!<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n 01\/2024 Our paper, titled In-Gap Edge and Domain-Wall States in Largely Perturbed Phononic Su\u2013Schrieffer\u2013Heeger Lattices<\/a> has been published by Crystals. Congratulations to all the authors! <\/strong><\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n 11\/2023 Dr. Ma was invited to present her work at theDepartment of Mechanical Engineering SeminarattheUniversity of South Carolina. Thank you, Dr.Downey, for the invitation!<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n 10\/2023 Our paper, titled<\/strong>Breakdown of Conventional Winding Number Calculation in One-Dimensional Lattices with Interactions Beyond Nearest Neighbors<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, has been accepted by Communications Physics and picked as the Editor’s Highlights<\/a>. Congratulations to all the authors! <\/strong><\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n 10\/2023 Dr. Ma was invited to present her work at theDepartment of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Seminarat Syracuse University, New York. Thank you, Dr. Shan, for the invitation!<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n 09\/2023 Dr. Ma was invited to present her work at the<\/strong>Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Seminar<\/strong><\/a>at the University at Buffalo, New York. Thank you, Dr. Nouh, for the invitation!<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n 07\/2023 Dr. Ma was invited to present her work for the <\/strong>Complex Mechanical Metamaterials<\/strong><\/a> workshop held at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n 03\/2023 Dr. Ma has been selected as a Summer Faculty Fellow by the Air Force Research Laboratory.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n 03\/2023 Our team, led by Drs. Ma and Huston, have received funding from the NASA EPSCoR to work on metamaterials. Congratulations!<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n 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!<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n 01\/2023 Our CNMS user facility proposal has been approved.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n 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. <\/strong><\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n 11\/03\/2022 Dr. Ma presented the Dynamics of meta-sandwich beams at IMECE in Columbus, OH.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n 10\/06\/2022 Dr. Ma was invited to give a technical presentation at 3M. Thank you, Dr. Jiadi Fan, for your invitation!<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n 09\/2022 Our team, led by Dr. Jihong Ma, has received a US-DOE grant titledMulti\u2010scale Study of Self\u2010Healing 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.<\/strong> News for both PI Ma and PI Cotts can be found <\/strong>here<\/strong><\/a>. Dr. Ma’s interview can be found <\/strong>here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n 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<\/em><\/strong>. 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 <\/strong>here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n 09\/19\/2022 Dr. Ma’s review article, titled <\/strong>Phonon Engineering of Micro- and Nanophononic Crystals and Acoustic Metamaterials: A Review<\/em><\/strong><\/a> has been accepted by Small Science. <\/em>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.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n 08\/2022 Our team, led by Prof. Matthew White in the Department of Physics at UVM, has received the prestigious <\/strong>NSF PIRE award entitled PIRE: US-Japan Partnership in Excitonic Soft Materials for Clean Energy<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong> 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. <\/strong><\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n 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!<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n 03\/07\/2022 Dr. Ma presented <\/strong>Wave propagation in meta-sandwich beams<\/strong><\/a> at SPIE in Long Beam, CA.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n 02\/21\/2022 Our paper titled <\/strong>Symmetry Effect on the Dynamic Behaviors of Sandwich Beams with Periodic Face Sheets<\/em><\/strong><\/a> has been accepted by Composite Structures. Congratulations!<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/site.uvm.edu\/jama\/files\/2023\/05\/NSFlogo.jpg\")
03\/2026 Dr. Ma received the National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) award<\/a>. Family, friends, mentors, colleagues, students, and CEMS staff members, who have helped with the application process, are deeply appreciated!<\/strong><\/p>\r\n03\/2026 Our Paper,<\/strong> titled Ionic-Content-Driven Restructuring of Spirobisindane Ionene Networks: Implications for Mechanics, Self-Healing, and Gas Transport<\/em>, in collaboration with the University of Alabama and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has been accepted by Soft Matter <\/em>and highlighted on the cover of the journal. Congratulations to all the authors!<\/strong><\/p>\r\n
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02\/2026 Dr. Ma and Prof. Kwang Seob Jeong (Korea University) received funding from the University of Vermont and Korea University for their collaborative project on quantum material studies. Congratulations! We look forward to this exciting opportunity!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\r\n
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07\/2026 Dr. Ma was invited to give a talk at METAMAT 2026<\/a> in Ajaccio, France. Thank you, Dr. Maumer Kadic, for the invitation!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\r\n![\"META2026](\"https:\/\/metaconferences.org\/META26\/images\/logo-meta26-400-jan.png\"){kind=logo}
07\/2026 Dr. Ma was invited to give a talk at the Special Symposium V: <\/a><\/strong>Architectured Elastic and Acoustic Metamaterials & Phononic Crystals at <\/strong>META2026 in Dublin, Ireland. Thank you, Dr. Marco Miniaci and all five symposium organizers, for the invitation!<\/strong><\/p>\r\n01\/2026<\/strong> Our team, led by Prof. Matthew White in the Department of Physics at UVM, has received the award for International\u00a0<\/span>Research\u00a0<\/span>Experiences\u00a0<\/span>for\u00a0<\/span>Students supported by the National Science Foundation<\/span><\/strong>.<\/strong> This project will be a collaboration between UVM and Yamagata University in Japan. Dr. Ma is leading the theoretical effort. Congratulations to the team!<\/strong><\/p>\r\n11\/2025 Our paper, titled Hierarchical topological states without dimension reduction<\/a>, in collaboration with the University of Michigan, has been published by Reports on Progress in Physics<\/em>, one of the most prestigious physics journals. Congratulations to all the authors! This work has been highlighted by the editor in Physics World: Symmetry\u2011preserving route to higher\u2011order insulators \u2013 Physics World<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\r\n
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11\/2025 Dr. Ma was invited to give a talk at the Polymer Science and Engineering Research Seminar at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Thank you, Prof. Al Crosby, for the invitation!<\/strong><\/p>\r\n![\"Institute](\"https:\/\/www.ibs.re.kr\/images\/eng\/common\/header_logo.gif\"){kind=logo}
10\/2025 <\/strong> Dr. Ma was invited to give a talk at the Institute for Basic Science at Korea University in Seoul, South Korea. Thank you, Prof. Kwang Seob Jeong, for the invitation!<\/strong><\/p>\r\n![](\"https:\/\/etopim13.sciencesconf.org\/data\/header\/logo_1.jpg\"){kind=logo}
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06\/2025 Dr. Ma was invited to give a talk at Phononics 2025<\/a> in Seoul, South Korea. Thank you, Professor Jinkyu Yang, for your invitation!<\/strong><\/p>\r\n05\/2025 Dr. Ma was invited to give a talk at the joint 188th meeting of the Acoustical Society of America and the 25th International Congress on Acoustics<\/a> in New Orleans, Louisiana. Thank you, Professor Georgios Theocharis, for your invitation!<\/strong><\/p>\r\n
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02\/2025 Our recent paper, titled Evaluation of Density-Functional Tight-Binding Methods for Simulation of Protic Molecular Ion Pairs<\/a>, in collaboration with Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has been published in the Journal of Computational Chemistry. Congratulations to all the authors!<\/strong><\/p>\r\n![\"APL](\"https:\/\/aipp.silverchair-cdn.com\/data\/SiteBuilderAssets\/Live\/Images\/apm\/aipp-aplmaterials-vr2-569431082.svg\")
11\/2024 Our paper, titled Effect of Grain Boundaries on Thermal Transport in Bi-Layer Graphene Nano-Ribbons<\/a>, has been accepted by APL Materials – Special Collection:\u00a0Emerging Leaders in Materials Science<\/a>. Congratulations to all the authors!<\/strong><\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n![](\"http:\/\/site.uvm.edu\/jama\/files\/2026\/03\/adma202570030-gra-0001-m.jpg\")
10\/2024 Our paper, titled Ultrafast symmetry control in photoexcited quantum dots<\/a> has been accepted by Advanced Materials <\/em>and is selected as the Frontispiece.\u00a0Congratulations to all the authors!<\/strong><\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/site.uvm.edu\/jama\/files\/2024\/05\/Conferences-2250-1.png\")
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