News

Professor Elizabeth MY Lee, a Samueli Faculty Development Chair Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, has received the National Science Foundation’s CAREER Award, one of the most prestigious honors for early-career faculty. The NSF Faculty Early Career Development Program supports early-career faculty with the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education…Continue Reading Professor Elizabeth Lee Receives Prestigious 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

The CeMi Lee Lab presented talks and posters at the 7th Southern California Theoretical Chemistry (SoCal TheoChem) Symposium at UC San Deigo in La Jolla, CA. It was exciting to connect with fellow theoretical and computational researchers working on diverse topics, ranging from excited state dynamics of materials, molecular spectroscopy, to machine learning-driven protein structure…Continue Reading CeMi Lab at the SoCal TheoChem @ UCSD – Daisy wins a Poster Award

Congratulations to Kenta Moore and Xavier Garcia for their successful presentations at the UCI Summer Undergrad Research Symposium! They joined our lab through NSF REU Programs (Kenta – Decarbonization and Xaiver – MRSEC CCAM) to carry out research in the CeMi lab this summer. Kenta investigated the effect of ceramic oxides on metal catalysts for…Continue Reading Kenta and Xavier presenting at the Undergrad Research Symposium