The Alabama Materials Institute is thrilled to announce the first annual AMI Research Showcase to be held on The University of Alabama Campus May 7–8, 2026, in the Bevill building.
This showcase will feature the research of affiliated faculty via both faculty member talks and a graduate student poster session.
Please contact Savannah Barnett, sbarnett5@ua.edu, with any questions.
Thanks to our faculty planning committee: Dr. Jared Allred, Dr. Adam Hauser, Dr. Gregory Kubacki, Dr. Lingyan Kong, Dr. Yi Lin, and Dr. Mingfei Zhao and to Dr. Gregory Thompson for support.
AMI Research Showcase
May 07 – May 08
Time 8:30 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Location Bevill Building Room 1000
Event Details
Agenda
| Thursday, May 7– Bevill 1000 | |
| 8:15–9:00 a.m. | Welcome & Light Breakfast |
| 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. | Energy, Sustainability & Manufacturing (Chair: Dr. Mingfei Zhao) Dr. Dawen Li – Sustainable Manufacturing of Perovskite Solar Cells and Modules Dr. Kimberly Genareau– Material Changes in Lightning-Struck Trees Dr. Tiaojiao Lei – Advancing structural materials manufacturing via nanoscale defect engineering Dr. Jialai Wang – Material innovations for sustainable and resilient civil infrastructure Dr. Rebecca Totten – TBD Speaker Panel Discussion to Follow |
| 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. | Lunch |
| 1:00 – 4:30 p.m. | Soft Materials, Polymers & Biomaterials (Chair: Dr. Yi Lin) Dr. Jason Bara – Bara Group Research Dr. Lingyan Kong – Biopolymer Nanofibers Dr. Marco Bonizzoni – Nanomaterials for analytical applications Dr. Wenfang Sun – Ir(III) complexes as photosensitizers for phototherapy of cancers and microbials Dr. Silas Blackstock – Soft ‘Dynamic’ Materials Development – Chemical Nanomechanical Switches based on Azobenzenes, Chemical Docking Systems base on Nitrosobenzenes Dr. James Sheehan – Supercritical Fluid Functionalization of Cellulose for Surface Modification and Sustainable Material Design Dr. AyanJeet Ghosh – Mapping heterogeneities in biomaterials using infrared microscopy and machine learning Speaker Panel Discussion to Follow |
| 4:30 – 6:00 p.m. – Bevill Foyer | Poster Session 1 Section 1: Soft Materials, Polymers, and Biomaterials Section 2: Electronic, Magnetic, Optical, and Quantum Materials |
| 6:00 p.m. | Adjourn Day 1 |
| Friday, May 8 – Bevill 1000 | |
| 8:15–9:00 a.m. | Welcome & Light Breakfast |
| 9:00 – 11:30 a.m. | Characterization, Imaging & Functional Materials (Chair: Dr. Lingyan Kong) Dr. Jared Allred – The deceptive simplicity of symmetry in crystals Dr. Klaus van Benthem – Atomic resolution characterization of grain boundary structures: from interface excess to kinetic mechanisms Dr. Alberto Perez-Huerta – Atom Probe Tomography (APT) Analysis of Biomaterials Dr. Ayanjeet Ghosh – Probing structural defects in functional materials using infrared microscopy Dr. Gregory Thompson – Quantitative Imaging Methods for Deciphering Stability in Nanocrystalline Metals Speaker Panel Discussion to Follow |
| 11:30 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. | Lunch and Poster Session II Section 3: Hard Materials, Structural Materials, and Manufacturing Section 4: Emerging Functional Materials, Catalysis, and Data-Driven Materials |
| 2:00 – 4:55 p.m. | Quantum, Electronic & Computational Materials (Chair: Dr. Gregory Kubacki) Dr. Tibor Szlivasi – Modeling Supported Nanoparticles for Catalysis Dr. Yi Lin – Lin Group Research in Quantum Materials and Human Subjects Dr. Malgorzata Makos – Machine Learning for Reaction Pathway Search Dr. Kun Lu – Information extraction for materials science Dr. Greg Szulczewski – Thin films for catalysis and chemical sensing Dr. Chongze Hu – Order-to-Disorder Transitions in High-Entropy MXenes Dr. Igor Fedin – Photophysics of colloidal quantum dots Speaker Panel Discussion to Follow |