Year: 2025

Congratulations to Professor Lee for receiving the National Science Foundation’s CAREER Award, one of the most prestigious honors for early-career faculty. This five-year grant will support our research group to develop novel computational methods to simulate chemical reactions at hard–soft matter interfaces — such as the interaction between polymer materials (“soft”) and metal surfaces (“hard”). By…Continue Reading Professor Elizabeth Lee Receives NSF CAREER Award

Congratulations to Shawn, an undergraduate researcher in the CeMi group, for being awarded the Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) fellowship. This award will support his research during the Summer quarter, where he will investigate electric-field-driven defect formation in diamond using ab initio simulations. Insights from this project will enable the scalable production of quantum defects,…Continue Reading Shawn Receives the Summer Undergraduate Research Program Fellowship

In collaboration with the UCI School of Engineering, the CeMi Lab organized an outreach event called IGNITE, aimed at introducing middle and high school students from Santa Ana to STEM fields, and provide guidance on college admissions and careers in engineering. The students visited our lab to explore the world of materials science and engineering…Continue Reading Inspiring the Next Generation: IGNITE Outreach Event

Quasi-1D van der Waals (vdW) crystals with atomic-scale chain motifs offer exciting opportunities for designing ultrathin materials with tailored optical and electronic properties. In collaboration with the Maxx Arguilla research group (UCI), we report the discovery of a covalently bonded [Sb4Te6]ₙ chain—a single-chain polymorph of the 2D vdW solid Sb2Te3—encapsulated inside single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs)….Continue Reading Emergence of a New Quasi-1D Polymorph of a 2D Material within Carbon Nanotubes

Students from the CeMi Lee Lab participated in the 2025 American Chemical Society (ACS) Spring Meeting in San Diego, CA, presenting both talks and posters. The conference offered an exciting opportunity to engage with the broader scientific community across areas including theory and simulation, catalysis, energy, and quantum materials. Congratulations to Daisy for winning best…Continue Reading Congratulations to Daisy and Joni for best presentation awards at the ACS Spring Meeting!

The CeMi Lee Lab presented talks and posters at the 2025 American Physical Society (APS) March Meeting in Anaheim, CA, engaging with the broader scientific community across disciplines, including theory and simulation, catalysis, energy, and quantum materials. Our group members gave the following presentations: Talk Session1. Prof. Elizabeth M.Y. Lee, “Machine-Learning Driven Ab Initio Enhanced…Continue Reading CeMi Lab at the 2025 APS Global Physics Summit Meeting in Anaheim, CA

Refractory complex concentrated alloys (RCCAs) exhibit promising mechanical properties for high-temperature structural applications. However, their development and practical use are hindered by extremely low ductility at room temperature, primarily caused by interstitial impurities inadvertently introduced during the RCCA processing. In collaboration with the research groups of Enrique Lavernia at Texas A&M University and Diran Apelian…Continue Reading The origin and control of interstitial impurities in refractory complex concentrated alloys

1D-inorganic crystals with atomic-scale helical motifs promise unique properties such as non-centrosymmetric symmetry, chiral-induced spin selectivity, and nonlinear optical activity. In collaboration with the Maxx Arguilia research group (UCI), we discover and characterize a new inorganic compound named gallium sulfur iodide (GaSI), which has a unique helical structure and a “squircular” cross-section and crystallizes in…Continue Reading Discovery of GaSI: A Helical 1D-Inorganic Crystal