David Mandrus holds a silica tube containing a spintronic material, MnPS3, created in his lab.

A materials science professor in UT’s Tickle College of Engineering has received a five-year $1.7 million award from a leading scientific research foundation to pursue cutting-edge work in the emerging field of quantum materials.

David Mandrus, the Jerry and Kay Henry Endowed Professor, holds a joint appointment at UT and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Mandrus’s work has been cited thousands of times and he has earned several notable accolades for his part in advancing materials science. In recognition of his work, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation has named him an Emergent Phenomena in Quantum Systems Materials Synthesis Investigator.

Four UT graduate students have received Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) awards. This is the highest number of SCGSR awardees UT has had in one year.

SCGSR, a program of the US Department of Energy’s Office of Science, grants supplemental awards to graduate students in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields who demonstrate potential for advancing scholarship and innovation in areas critical to the Office of Science’s mission. The goal of the program is to better prepare students for scientific and technical careers.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Innovation Crossroads program will open applications this September for its 3rd Cohort of technology innovators.

Innovation Crossroads is an early stage entrepreneurial fellowship program at Oak Ridge National Laboratory that supports leading technology innovators as they advance an energy or advanced manufacturing idea with the potential for global impact. This program is a public-private partnership founded by Oak Ridge National Laboratory and supported by the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Advanced Manufacturing Office.

A professor holding class outside on a balmy fall day is not an unusual sight to see on campus. It may be slightly out of the norm on The Hill, but still not entirely unheard of. However, throw in some fire, hammers and steel, and then it becomes a unique event.