Principal Investigator Heading link
Sara Kadkhodaei
Department of Civil and Materials Engineering
Biography:
Sara Kadkhodaei joined the Civil and Materials Engineering department at UIC in 2019. She received her B.Sc degree in Civil Engineering from the Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, Iran, and her M.A. in Physical Chemistry and Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from Brown University. Dr. Kadkhodadei’s research interest is in the development of advanced first-principles and atomistic-based theoretical models to understand the underlying physics of materials and their integration into high-throughput computational frameworks.
Graduate Students Heading link
Ali Davariashtiyani
Ph.D. Candidate – Materials Engineering
Biography:
Ali Davari is studying for his doctorate in Materials Engineering at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). He earned his undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering at the University of Tehran. Ali graduated with a master’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Drexel University with a minor in Computer Science. Having developed a strong background in scientific computing and atomic-level simulations, he joined CMRL in January 2019. His research is focused on developing data-driven computational frameworks and methodologies to assess the stability of crystalline materials.
Seyyedfaridoddin Fattahpour
Ph.D. Candidate – Materials Engineering
Biography:
Farid is studying for his doctorate in Materials Engineering at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). He earned his bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Sharif University of Technology in Tehran. Farid graduated with a master’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Chicago. He joined CMRL in June 2020. His research is focused on understanding solid state vibrations at high temperature.
Manisha Barse
Master’s Student
Biography: Manisha is studying for her master’s in Materials Engineering at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). She received her B.E. in Electronics and Telecommunication from Savitribai Phule Pune University, India and M.Tech in Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) Design from ABV- Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management (ABV-IIITM) India. She also earned her MS in Bioinformatics from UIC. Having interest in first principle analysis of materials, she joined CMRL in August 2022. Her research is focused on understanding thermodynamics of defected semiconductors.
Undergraduate Students Heading link
Noel Siony
Undergraduate Researcher – Physics
Noel graduated with a bachelor’s in Physics at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). He joined CMRL in the Summer of 2021. He participated in the UIC’s undergraduate student team for the 2021 ASM materials design competition. His research is focused on utilizing computational techniques to study corrosion and thermal phase transformation.
Connor Luttrell
Former Members Heading link
- Noel Siony – B.Sc. Physics (Honors College Graduate in Physics 2023) – AT UIC: Worked at CMRL summer 2021-summer 2023. Supported by UIC’s DoD-STEM 2021-2023, Next: Graduate Student at the University of Miami
- Long T. Vuong – B.Sc. Mechanical Engineering 2023 – AT UIC: Worked at CMRL summer 2020-spring 2023. Awardee of UIC’s GPIP program 2020, UIC’s CURA 2020-2021 and 2021-2022, and UIC’s DoD-STEM 2022-2023.
- Ran Tao – China 3+2 program at UIC – Worked at CMRL for 2019-2020
- Caitlin Azar – Undergraduate student in Mechanical Engineering – Worked at CMRL in 2019-2020
Open Positions Heading link
Overview: Computational Materials Research is an interdisciplinary area of research that involves different areas of expertise such as materials science, physics, mathematics, and computational science. Therefore, a strong background in materials science, physics, and mathematics is required in order to join our group and prior experience in computational work is encouraged.
Ph.D. Position in the Chicago/DOE Alliance Center
A fully funded Ph.D. position for US Persons (US citizens or permanent residents) is available for Fall 2023/Spring 2024 in Prof. Kadkhodaei’s lab at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC). This position is funded under the Chicago/DOE Alliance Center (CDAC) and provides excellent, cutting-edge collaborative research opportunities for the student. The primary research focus will be on understanding the kinetics and thermodynamics of solids under extreme conditions by developing quantum mechanical, atomistic modeling, and artificial intelligence/machine learning techniques. The candidate will have plenty of learning opportunities, from developing novel computational frameworks and numerical toolkits to a fundamental understanding of materials systems. The candidate will be involved in various research tasks as well as critical thinking, rigorous analysis, and scientific writing. CDAC provides excellent opportunities to collaborate and network with several distinguished professors and scientists in other universities and national labs.
To learn more about CDAC, visit https://cdac.phys.uic.edu/about-cdac/
To learn more about Prof. Kadkhodaei’s lab, visit: https://cmrl.lab.uic.edu/
Eligibility & Minimum Qualifications:
- Applicants must be US Persons (US citizens or permanent residents)
- A bachelor’s/master’s degree in materials science, physics, engineering, or related fields – with a GPA of 3.5 or higher
- A strong background in Materials Science, Solid State Physics, and Computational Science.
- An interest to work in computational materials research projects.
- Background in programming and high-performance computing (HPC) is an advantage.
How to Apply: If you are interested, please contact me at sarakad@uic.edu with a detailed CV and a copy of your academic transcripts. Please briefly express why you are interested in this position.
M.Sc. Positions
I am constantly looking for hard-working and highly motivated master’s students. If you are interested, do not hesitate to contact me at sarakad@uic.edu with a detailed CV and your academic transcripts. Please briefly express your reasoning for why you are interested in joining our group.