People

Prof Jaime Marian has a joint appointment in the Materials Science and Engineering and Mechanical and Aerospace Depts. at UCLA since 2014. Prior to that, he was a staff scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (2005-2014), where he worked on the development of physics models for materials under extreme conditions. He holds a nuclear engineering degree from the Polytechnic University of Madrid (1998), and a PhD in computational materials and mechanics (2002). He did postdoctoral work at Caltech (2003-2005) and was visiting professor at the IMDEA Materials Institute in Madrid (2022).

Marta’s research is primarily focused on the atomic-scale understanding and control of the deformation mechanisms involved in the mechanical behavior of high-performance metallic materials. Her work relies on the implementation of cutting-edge characterization techniques based on
in-situ Scanning and Transmission Electron Microscopy (SEM, TEM). Her
current research interests include: (i) interaction between dislocations and solute atoms in bcc refractory high entropy alloys, (ii) irradiation induced defects in structural materials.

Alan is  a postdoctoral scholar in the Marian group working on mesoscale model  development for simulation of mechanical properties of alloys. He has done work on Monte Carlo methods, dislocation dynamics, and atomistic simulations. Lately, he has been working on stochastic rate theory models of radiation damage in materials.

Jorge obtained his bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Alabama in Huntsville in 2021. His research focuses on developing new models to characterize secondary electron emission from plasma-material interactions at low energies relevant to electric propulsion.

Scarlett has a BS in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering from Central South University in China. At UCLA, she is pursuing her PhD in materials science on the development of stochastic crystal plasticity models to study the deformation behavior of haigh-entropy alloys, and promising candidate materials in fusion technology. 

Lily majored in Materials Science and Engineering for both her undergraduate and Masters degrees. Currently, She is working on exploring the development of tungsten oxide under different temperatures, and the behavior of complex alloys under irradiation. 

Stephanie’s primary focus is understanding the theoretical underpinnings of how material properties at one scale emerge from material properties at another scale. She is working towards building predictive models that can be leveraged for materials selection, exploration, tailoring, and design. Her current focus is a collaborative project on modeling the electronic structure of compositionally and structurally complex metal alloy systems.

Peng received his BS degree in Inorganic Nonmetallic Materials Engineering from the Wuhan Institute of Technology and a MS degree in Materials Engineering from the University of Southern California. Currently, he is pursuing a PhD under the supervision of Professor Marian. His research focuses on stochastic phase field modeling and first principles simulation.

Priyanshu is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Materials Science and Engineering at UCLA. His research interests lie in the field of multiscale materials modeling, and the associated techniques such as DFT, molecular dynamics, or the phase-field method. He is currently working on the computational study of adhesiveness of polymeric coating on metal layers.

Craig Wang is an undergraduate student studying aerospace engineering and data science. At the Marian group, he is developing computational tools to understand materials behavior in fusion energy conditions. Currently, he is working on hydrogen transport simulations in tungsten subjected to plasma exposure.