News

Prof. Oropeza has been awarded the LLNL Early Career UC Faculty Initiative award. This award will fund our work in near-net-shape processing of ultra-high temperature ceramics and provide key interactions with LLNL. 

Thank you to the LLNL Award Selection Committee for their support and we look forward to a sustained collaboration between UCSB and LLNL!

More details here.

Prof. Oropeza has been named the 2025 Global Young Investigator for the American Ceramics Society (ACerS) Engineering Ceramics Division (ECD). 

Thank you to the ECD Global Young Investigator Award Selection Committee for their support and to ACerS for the honor.

Prof. Oropeza has been awarded a grant from the Office of Naval Research for work on "Predictive Ultrasonic Atomization for Small-Batch, High-Yield Metal Powder Synthesis". We look forward to developing a predictive framework to correlate metal powder characteristics with ultrasonic atomization process parameters and providing research opportunities to undergraduates and graduates at UCSB. 

We would like to thank Mr. Anthony Smith, Dr. Charles Fisher, and Dr. Jennifer Wolk for their guidance and support of our work.

Prof. Oropeza has been awarded a seed grant from the Office of Research for work on "Manipulation of Fluid-Surface Dynamics via Additive Manufacturing of Micro-Scale Features". We look forward to developing a processing framework for powder bed fusion additive manufacturing to engineer surface and sub-surface microstructures through tailored parameter development. 

We would like to thank Dr. Maria Napoli and the UCSB Office of Research for their support and guidance.

Lucas Erich has been awarded the NASA Space Technology Graduate Research Opportunities (NSTGRO) Fellowship for his proposed work on the "Exploration of powder synthesis and additive manufacturing of refractory metal alloys for space nuclear propulsion." A validation of hard work in the fall during fellowship season. We look forward to the partnership between the MMAX Lab and NASA as a result of Lucas' fellowship.

Congratulations, Lucas!

Prof. Oropeza has been awarded a Challenge Grant from the California NanoSystems Institute to explore "Establishing UC M²ADE: The University Consortium for Materials and Manufacturing in Aerospace, Defense, and Energy." We look forward to discussing the genesis of a consortium in California with potential partners as we aim to develop a large-scale program to exploit nano-scale phenomena for next-generation aerospace, defense, and energy applications.

We believe that the high concentration of exemplary academic institutions and potential industry partners in California provide fertile ground for a regional consortium aligned under a common vision. Specifically focused on coupling nano-structure to macro-scale performance through collaborative efforts on novel synthesis, processing, and characterization, UC M²ADE will provide targeted benefits to members and further accelerate the development and implementation of novel materials in aerospace, defense, and energy.

We would like to thank Dr. Tal Margalith and CNSI for their support and guidance.