MEMBERS

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Avinash M. Dongare

Professor, and
Director of Graduate Studies,

Materials Science and Engineering,

Institute of Materials Science

Email: dongare@uconn.edu,

Google Scholar Profile

Bio: Prof. Dongare received his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Virginia in 2008. He carried out postdoctoral research through the National Research Council (NRC) Research Associateship Award from the US Army Research Office and as a Senior Research Associate at North Carolina State University. He joined the University of Connecticut as an Assistant Professor in the MSE Department in August 2012. Avinash has been the recipient of the 2015 Young Leaders Professional Development Award from The Minerals, Metals, and Materials Society (TMS) and the 2015 National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award.

GRADUATE RESEARCH ASSISTANTS

Ke Ma

Graduate Student (Ph.D.), Materials Science and Engineering,

August 2018 – Present

Email: ke.2.ma@uconn.edu

Google Scholar Profile

Bio: Ke Ma obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Material Science and Technology from University of Birmingham in 2016, then his master degree in Material Science and Engineering from University of Pennsylvania in 2018. Ke joined CMMG as a graduate student (PhD program) in Department of Material science and Engineering at UCONN in Fall 2018. His current research focuses on the understanding of the role of nanoscale interfaces on the deformation and failure response under dynamic loading conditions at the atomic scales.

Marco Echeverria

Graduate Student (Ph.D.), Materials Science and Engineering,

August 2018 – Present

Email: marco.echeverria@uconn.edu

Google Scholar Profile

Bio: Marco received his Bachelor’s of Engineering degree in Mechatronics Engineering from Centralamerican Technological University of Honduras in 2015 and his Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from University of Puerto Rico (Mayagüez) in 2018. He joined the CMMG in the fall of 2018 as a as a graduate student (PhD program) in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at UCONN. His research focuses on the atomic scale modeling of the deformation and failure response of multiphase metallic materials under shock loading conditions.

Ching Chen

Graduate Student (Ph.D.), Materials Science and Engineering,

August 2019 – Present

Email: ching.chen@uconn.edu

Google Scholar Profile

Bio: Ching Chen received his Bachelor’s degree in Engineering and System Science from National Tsing Hua University in 2014 and his Master’s degree in Materials Science and Engineering from National Chiao Tung University in 2016. After working as a Process Engineer at TSMC in 2018 and as a Research Assistant at National Chiao Tung University in 2019, Ching joined CMMG as a graduate student (PhD program) in the Department of Material Science and Engineering at UCONN in fall 2019. His current research focuses on atomic scale modeling of metallic materials under extreme environments.

Phillip Tsurkan

Graduate Student (Ph.D.), Materials Science and Engineering,

August 2022 – Present

Email: phillip.tsurkan@uconn.edu

Google Scholar Profile

Bio: Phillip received his Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Connecticut in 2022. He joined CMMG in the fall of 2022 as a graduate student pursuing a Ph.D. in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at UCONN. His current research focuses on atomic scale modeling of the deformation and failure response of multiphase metal microstructures under shock loading conditions and characterization of the plasticity contributions using simulated x-ray diffraction.

Aadhithyan Kannan

Graduate Student (Ph.D.), Materials Science and Engineering,

August 2022 – Present

Email: aadhithyan.kannan@uconn.edu

Google Scholar Profile

Bio: Aadhi received his bachelor’s and master’s degree in materials science, from Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, India in 2022. He joined CMMG in the fall of 2022 as a graduate student pursuing a Ph.D. in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at UCONN. His current research focuses on understanding the mechanisms of reverse phase transformation and detwinning in BCC metals at the atomic scales using virtual texture analysis.

Roshan Sebastian

Graduate Student (Ph.D.), Materials Science and Engineering,

August 2022 – Present

Email: roshan.sebastian@uconn.edu

Google Scholar Profile

Bio: Roshan Sebastian received his bachelor’s degree from RIT, Kottayam, Kerala, in Electronics and Communication Engineering and a master’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar, India, in Materials Science and Engineering with a gold medal. He then worked at the University of Nottingham, Ningbo, before joining CMMG as a graduate student (Ph.D. program) in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at UCONN in the fall of 2022. His current research focuses on the modeling of laser-material interactions across multiple scales.

Andrew Shortridge

Graduate Student (Ph.D.), Mechanical Engineering,

January 2023 – Present

Email: andrew.shortridge@uconn.edu

Google Scholar Profile

Bio:Andrew Shortridge received his Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Connecticut in 2022. Andrew joined CMMG in the spring of 2023 as a graduate student pursuing a Ph.D. in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at UCONN. His research currently focuses on the atomistic scale modeling of the deformation and failure response of polymer composites under varying loading conditions at atomic scales.

ALUMNI: GRADUATE STUDENTS

Shayani Parida

Graduate Student (Ph.D.), Materials Science and Engineering,

August 2018 – Present

Email: shayani.parida@uconn.edu

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Dr. Sergey Galitskiy

Ph.D., Materials Science and Engineering, October 2021

Current Position: Stanley Black & Decker

Email: sergey.galitskiy@uconn.edu

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Dr. Sumit Suresh

Ph.D., Materials Science and Engineering, March 2021

Current position: Postdoctoral Researcher, Los Alamos National Laboratory

Email: sumit.suresh@uconn.edu

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DR. Jie Chen

Ph.D., Materials Science and Engineering, May 2019

Current Position: Postdoctoral Researcher, Los Alamos National Laboratory

Email: jie.chen@uconn.edu

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Dr. Garvit Agarwal

Ph.D., Materials Science and Engineering, March 2019

Current Position: Senior Scientist I at Schrödinger

Email: garvit.agarwal@uconn.edu

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DR. Jin Wang

Ph.D., Materials Science and Engineering, January 2018

Current Position: Data Scientist at AWS

Email: wj0600@gmail.com

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ALUMNI: RESEARCH SCIENTISTS / POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHERS

Dr. Avinash Mishra

Research Scientist (May 2019 – Jan 2022)

Current Position: Postdoctoral Researcher, Los Alamos National Laboratory

Email: avanish.mishra@uconn.edu;

Google Scholar Profile

Dr. Rajesh Kumar

Postdoctoral Researcher, October 2018 to June 2019

Current Position: Assistant Professor, NIT, Hamirpur, INDIA

Email: rpawar@nith.ac.in 

Google Scholar Profile

DR. Liang Dong

Postdoctoral Researcher, May 2013 – May 2014

Current Position: Program Manager, Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists
New York Academy of Sciences

Email:dlysqh@gmail.com

Google Scholar

ALUMNI: UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS

ALICE HU

Undergraduate Student (B.S.), August 2016 – Present

Materials Science and Engineering,
University of Connecticut

Email: aliceyhu@gmail.com

HETAL PATEL

B.S.,Materials Science and Engineering, May 2019

Current Position: Graduate Student, MSE, UC Berkeley

Email: hetal.2.patel@uconn.edu

KAROON MACKENCHERY

B.S., Materials Science and Engineering, May 2015

Current Position:

Email:

KATHLEEN COLEMAN

B.S. Materials Science and Engineering, May 2016

Current Position: Graduate Student, MSE, Pennsylvania State University