Jason Trelewicz, PhD, an Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Stony Brook
University (SBU), has received the prestigious Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award
from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Trelewicz, a member of the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences (CEAS), will receive NSF CAREER funding of $500,000 over the next five years to support
his project, titled “Interface Engineered Amorphous Alloys for Thermoplastic Forming of Ductile Bulk Metallic Glasses.”
According to the NSF, the CAREER Award is given to promising young university faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholar
through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of both education
and research.
“Being recognized with the prestigious CAREER Award speaks volumes about Jason’s research vision,”
said CEAS Dean Fotis Sotiropoulos. “This funding enables him to integrate research topics
on the unique properties of metallic glasses into the undergraduate Material Science curricula
offered by CEAS. It also provides an opportunity to engage underrepresented students
and regional high schools in cutting-edge research.”
Trelewicz’ research centers on the design, synthesis, and characterization of nanostructured
and amorphous metals through computational modeling and materials science experimentation.
Commonplace metals such as aluminum or steel are made up of atoms that are arranged
in a regular, periodic structure. Amorphous metals on the other hand, exhibit a highly
disordered atomic structure akin to a glass, and are consequently referred to as metallic
glasses. This relatively new class of materials, often used in products such as USB
drives, medical and sporting equipment, has shown great promise as next-generation
high-strength materials with applications in the electronics, automotive and aerospace
industries. A problem that continues to plague metallic glasses is that they tend
to be very brittle and can fail catastrophically. Processing routes for bulk manufacturing
of these materials are also quite limited.
Trelewicz hopes to turn these problems with metallic glasses into opportunities for
improvement with his new research. Under the NSF CAREER program, he will use atomistic
simulations to design, atom-by-atom, novel interface engineered amorphous alloys.
These alloys will be manufactured and characterized to develop a new understanding
of the deformation mechanisms at the nanoscale.
“The goal of the research will be to engineer interfaces into metallic glasses to
enhance their strength, toughness, and formability,” said Trelewicz. “Using integrated
materials engineering principles, we will design novel metallic glasses with superior
properties that can be manufactured at large-scales.”
The broader impact of the research, says Trelewicz, is that society will be greatly
impacted by metallic glasses that can be manufactured and optimized for applications
as advanced structural and electronic materials.
“These materials have the potential to revolutionize sheet metal production used
in industries that transform the ways we travel, build, and communicate,” he explained.
Trelewicz earned his PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from Massachusetts Institute
of Technology in 2008. Prior to joining the faculty at Stony Brook, he was a Research
Director at MesoScribe
Technologies, Inc. He is the recipient of the 2015 Young Leader Professional Development
Award and
2014 Emerging Leaders Alliance Award from The Minerals, Metals, and Materials Society
(TMS), and
received the Top Speaker Award at the 2010 Defense Manufacturing Conference.