Hu, Leite and Mo Promoted

University of Maryland (UMD) Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) Faculty Members Liangbing Hu, Marina Leite and Yifei Mo have been promoted to full professor and associate professors, with tenure, respectively. The trio was honored at the 2019 Clark School of Engineering Assembly on May 15^th, during which Dean Darryll Pines discussed the state of the college.

Hu joined the MSE faculty in 2011, followed by Drs. Leite and Mo in 2013. Since then, each of them have published ground-breaking research, given numerous invited talks, and received multiple awards for their contributions.

Dr. Hu is well-known for his out-of-the-box sustainability research, creating batteries out of wood, or even a blade of grass, in addition to 'super wood' - a smart/green alternative to steel or carbon fiber - which has received a plethora of media attention, in addition to several awards. Moreover, Hu and his research team received the 2019 Invention of the Year Award for their development of high-performance graphite paper composites.

Dr. Leite, also an IREAP fellow, investigates materials for energy harvesting and storage, from their nanoscale structural, electrical and optical properties to their device implementation. Her research - on perovskites and biodegradable color pixels, for example - made the cover of several top-tier journals as of late, including ACS Photonics, Joule and Advanced Optical Materials.

Dr. Mo, whose current research focuses primarily on computational materials science for sustainable energy applications, made the cover of the Journal of Materials Chemistry, and was published in Joule as well, for his work on all-solid-state lithium-ion batteries. The Journal of the American Chemical Society published his study, which determined the cause of crystal formation on nanostructures. Additionally, Mo received the Outstanding Young Scientist Award for 2019, and was honored at a ceremony hosted by the Maryland Science Center earlier this month.

Published May 17, 2019