People
Jaafar A. El-Awady, Ph.D.
As the founder and director of the Johns Hopkins Integrated Computations and Experiments for Materials Design Laboratory (ICE4iMD) and the interim director of the Hopkins Extreme Materials Institute (HEMI), Professor El-Awady’s expertise lies predominantly in the realm of materials mechanics for extreme environments. His work centers on the development of advanced multi-scale simulation techniques, spanning from the atomic scale to continuum-level modeling. This comprehensive approach is employed alongside high-temperature bulk- and micro-scale experiments to predict various aspects of material behavior, including mechanical properties, underlying deformation mechanisms, damage evolution, and failure mechanisms. Furthermore, Professor El-Awady’s research group is actively engaged in integrating cutting-edge machine learning methodologies, facilitating the advancement of artificial intelligence-driven materials discovery. This multidisciplinary approach aligns with the broader mission of advancing materials science and engineering to address the challenges of extreme environments and drive innovations in material design and performance.
Group Photos
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2024
Our Team
Postdoctoral Fellows
Ali K. Shargh, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral fellow
Ali is a postdoctoral fellow who joined El-Awady’s group in January 2023. He received a BS (2014) and MS (2017) in Mechanical Engineering from K. N. Toosi University of Technology and Sharif University of Technology, Iran, respectively, and a PhD in Mechanical Engineering (2023) from the University of Rochester, New York. His research interests include machine learning, multiscale modeling, and fracture mechanics. His ongoing research focuses on leveraging physics-based modeling and advanced machine learning techniques to enable the design of new refractory multi-principal element alloys with superior spall strength and high temperature mechanical properties. He also works on the predicting of the thermo-mechanical properties of ice and ice nucleation mechanisms.
Faizan Hijazi
Postdoctoral fellow
Faizan is a postdoctoral fellow who joined El-Awady’s group in January 2024. He received a BS (2015) in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering from National Institute of Technology (NIT) Srinagar, India and MS (2018) and PhD (2024) in Materials Engineering from Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore, India. Faizan was also honored as a Prime Minister’s Research Fellow (PMRF) from 2018 to 2023.
During his tenure at IISc, his research focused on the development of high-throughput cantilever bending, coupled with digital image correlation (DIC), as a viable creep testing method. He validated the technique on many industrial alloy systems including thermal power plant steels and Ti- alloys.
Faizan’s ongoing research focuses on in-situ SEM laser interferometry-based system for understanding real time micro-plasticity in additively manufactured NAB (Nickel Aluminum Bronze) alloys.
Ph.D. Students
Jing Luo
Ph.D. Student
Jing is a PhD student who joined the El-Awady’s group in Fall 2020. She received her Master degree (2020) in Solid Mechanics and Bachelor degrees (2017) in Engineering Mechanics and Applied Mathematics from Dalian University of Technology. Her research is focused on developing new theoretical models for defect interactions in materials as well as for predicting the mechanical properties of advanced alloys.
Dylan Madisetti
Ph.D. Student
Dylan, a senior student on our team, graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of South Carolina. He has had working experience at Google (Software Engineer) and NASA Langley (Intern) for machine learning in language models and defect detection in composites, respectively. Initially under the NSF GRFP and subsequently the APL Fellowship, his work has focused on utilizing machine learning to extract microstructural details from X-Ray diffraction characterization, using simulations of dislocations and X-Ray diffraction. Dylan specializes in distributed systems, machine learning, and physical modeling, with an interest in additively manufactured austenitic steels, making him a strong candidate in the aerospace and machine learning sectors.
Ruidong Mei
Ph.D. Student
Ruidong is a PhD student who joined the El-Awady’s group in Fall 2023. He received his bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Sichuan University in 2023. His research will focus on predicting the plastic behaviors of advanced alloys through computational techniques.
Mostafa Omar
Ph.D. Student
Mostafa is pursuing his PhD degree in Mechanical Engineering at the Johns Hopkins University. He joined El-Awady’s ground in August 2018 after majoring in Mechanical Engineering in which he received his BS and MS from Ain Shams University, Egypt. Mostafa’s research journey commenced during his MS where he worked at the Energy Materials Lab at the American University in Cairo. His research focused on manipulating the internal structure of Ti alloys through nanostructuring, morphology tuning, as well as annealing in different environments, aiming to design high-performance photocatalysts for water splitting applications. Mostafa’s current research interest is directed towards pushing the limits of the time resolution at which deformation dynamics of nickel single crystals can be investigated by integrating different characterization techniques. His PhD thesis is focused on coupling acoustic emissions and in-situ micro-testing techniques to unravel more information on the real-time deformation behavior of nickel single crystal micropillars.
Junjie Yang
Ph.D. Student
Junjie joined El-Awady’s group in Fall 2019 after he received a B.S. in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics from the University of Science and Technology of China. His current research interest is reconstructing internal deformation field in single-crystal metals from limited surface measurements. Junjie has expertise in Discrete Dislocation Dynamics simulations, Molecular Dynamics simulations, Machine Learning, and Inverse Problems.
Doctor of Engineering Students
Austin DiOrio
Doctor of Engineering Student
Austin DiOrio is a Doctor of Engineering Student who joined the El-Awady group in Summer 2021. He received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering in 2010 from Johns Hopkins University. He received a Master’s degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2012 while a researcher in the Gas Turbine Laboratory. His Master’s work focused on improving the efficiency of small jet engine compressors to minimize fuel burn. Since 2012, Austin has worked at The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory where he is currently a section supervisor in the Air and Missile Defense Sector. His D.Eng. research is focused on modeling erosion damage caused by particles that are present in solid rocket motor plumes.
Ben Medina
Doctor of Engineering Student
Ben Medina is a Doctor of Engineering Student who joined the El-Awady group in Spring 2023. He received his B.S. in mechanical engineering from Virginia Tech in 2016, where he served as an undergraduate researcher in the Experimental Condensed Matter Physics Laboratory. He also received his master’s in mechanical engineering from Johns Hopkins in 2020 with a specialization in solids/mechanics of materials. He is a full-time employee of the Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division where he serves as a Navy subject matter expert in underwater implosion physics. His research interests include structural response under highly dynamic plastic deformation, high pressure gradient fluid-structure interaction, and lithium-ion battery thermal runaway modeling and simulation. His current research focuses on modeling the failure of submersible vessels due to runaway failure of onboard lithium ion-batteries.
Undergraduate Research Assistants
Madison Morrison
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Madison is a senior undergraduate student in the Mechanical Engineering department with a Space Science and Engineering minor and Solid Mechanics focus area. She joined the El-Awady group in Summer 2022 conducting material deformation research centered around improving, automating, and experimentally validating a new surface morphology analysis techniques. She has acquired strong computation skills in MATLAB and Python as well as technical experience in computer vision, material fabrication, mechanical testing, and SEM imaging pillars.
Alumni
Postdoc Alums
Yizhe Tang
Current Position: Associate Professor at Shanghai University, Shanghai, China
(01/2012 – 06/2014)
Haidong Fan
Current Position: Professor at Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
(07/2013 – 06/2015)
Gi-Dong Sim
Current Position: Assistant Professor at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), South Korea
(10/2014 – 02/2017)
Kinshuk Srivastava
Current Position: Group leader/Project Manager at Dillinger Huette, Germany
(03/2015 – 06/2017)
Xiawa Wu
Current Position: Assistant Professor at Penn State Behrend, Erie, PA, USA
(06/2017 – 08/2019)
Mohammad H. Rafiei
Current Position: Postdoctoral fellow at Georgia State University, GA, USA
(08/2018 – 08/2020)
Divya Singh
Current Position: Postdoctoral fellow at University of California Irvine, USA
(02/2020 – 10/2021)
Lucas Frérot
Current Position: Postdoctoral fellow at University of Freiburg, Germany
(07/2020 – 10/2021)
Yejun Gu
Current Position: Scientist Level II, Institute of High Performance Computing (IHPC), Singapore
(09/2020 – 10/2021)
Markus Sudmanns
Current Position: Research Area Manager, RWTH Aachen University, Germany
(04/2020 – 10/2022)
Ali Rida, Ph.D.
Current Position:
(08/2020 – 10/2023)
Ph.D. Alums
Steven Lavenstein
Thesis title: “Micro-scale fatigue mechanisms in metals: an in situ high frequency experimental approach”
Current Position: Research Scientist at BlueHalo, Rockville, MD, USA
(08/2014 – 10/2019)
Quan Jiao
Thesis title: “In situ micro-mechanical characterization and multi-scale modeling of thermos-mechanical properties of micro-architectured tungsten coating”
Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University, MS, USA
(08/2013 – 05/2019)
Amin Aramoon
Thesis title: “A Multiscale Computational Framework to Predict Deformation and Failure in Polymer Matrix Composites”
Current Position: Staff Software Developer at Voltron Data, USA
(08/2012 – 10/2016)
Ahmed Hussein
Thesis title: “Dislocation Microstructure and Surface Roughness Evolution in Single and Multi-Phase Microcrystals”
Current Position: Technical Staff at Lightmatter Inc., Austin, Texas, USA
(01/2011 – 08/2015)
Binwei Zhang
Thesis title: “Experimental Characterization of Thermal Barrier Coatings using Micro-Scale Bending Techniques”
Current Position: Senior Development Scientist at Corning Inc., Painted Post, NY, USA
(09/2010 – 08/2015)
(co-advised with K.J. Hemker)
M.S. Alums
Bazah Alhooli
M.S. in Mechanical Engineering
(Graduate 05/2021)
Juliette Mahaffey
M.S. in Mechanical Engineering
Current Position: Mechanical Engineer at the Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University
(Graduate 05/2022)
Chunru Liu
M.S. in Materials Science and Engineering
(Graduate 05/2020)
Mohamed Hamza
M.S. in Mechanical Engineering
Current Position: Ph.D. Student, Arizona State University
(Graduate 05/2019)
Harsh Harsh
M.S. in Mechanical Engineering
Current Position: Risk Analyst, Chime
(Graduate 05/2019)
Zahra Molaeinia
M.S. in Mechanical Engineering
Essay title: “Non-linear Finite Element Simulation of Hydrogen Diffusion and Hydrogen-Dislocation Interactions in Metals”.
(Graduate 05/2015)
Kielan C. Crow
M.S. in Mechanical Engineering
(Graduated 05/2014)
Yaofang (Katherine) Zhang
M.S. in Mechanical Engineering
Current Position: Associate Engineer, Clark County Water Reclamation District
(Graduated 05/2014)
Pegah Ghahrmani
M.S. in Mechanical Engineering
Current Position: Applied Scientist at Amazon
(Graduated 05/2013)
Undergraduate Alums
Aaditya Rau
Graduated with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University
Current Position: a PhD student at the Computational Science and Engineering Department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, MS, USA
Dates in Group:
01/2020 – 05/2022
Ariana Hofelmann
Graduated with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University
Current Position: PhD Student in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University, CA, USA.
Dates in Group:
06/2020 – 08/2020
Roshan Plamthottam
Graduated with a B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering, Johns Hopkins University
Current Position: Patent Agent, Wolf Greenfield, Boston, MS, USA
Dates in Group:
06/2016 – 06/2018
Ryenne Dietrick
Graduated with a B.S. in Computer Science and Engineering, Johns Hopkins University
Current Position: Software Engineer at GoodRx, Santa Monica, CA, USA
Dates in Group:
06/2016 – 08/2017
Sapreen Abbass
Graduated with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University
Current Position: Sinor Project Manager at Amtrak, Philadelphia PS, USA
Dates in Group:
06/2016 – 12/2016
Neil Fendley
Graduated with a B.S. in Physics, Johns Hopkins University
Current Position: Computer Vision Researcher, Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University
Dates in Group:
06/2015 – 12/2015
Carlos Benavides
Graduated with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University
Current Position: Customer Project Manager at Ericsson, TX, USA
Dates in Group:
06/2014 – 12/2014
Thomas Liu
Graduate with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University
Current Position: Aerospace Engineer at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, AL
Dates in Group:
09/2013 – 05/2015
Visiting Alums
Wei Li
PhD student
Visiting from Sichuan University, China –
Current Position: Postdoctoral fellow at The University of Hong Kong.
(09/2018 – 08/2019)
Oreoluwa Adesina
A visiting undergraduate student from Morgan State University
Current Position: Cloud Solutions Architect, Google Cloud Platform at NetApp, MD, USA
(Summer 2016)
Islam Kibba
A visiting undergraduate student from Zewail City of Science and Technology, Egypt.
(Summer 2016)
Mohamed Hindy
A visiting undergraduate student from the British University in Cairo, Egypt.
Current Position: PhD Student at University of British Columbia, Canada
(Summer 2015)
Yunes Salman
A visiting undergraduate student from British University in Cairo, Egypt.
Current Position: Mechanical & Process Engineer, at IPSS Engineering, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
(Summer 2014)
Sheriff Asokuarami
PhD student
A visiting senior undergraduate student from Morgan State University (Historically Black College in Baltimore)
Current Position: Quality Test Engineer at Accenture, Washington D.C., USA
(Summer 2014)
Mohamed Hamza
A visiting undergraduate student from British University in Cairo, Egypt.
Current Position: PhD Student at Arizona State University, AZ, USA
(06/2014 – 08/2014) )
Nadia Salman
A visiting undergraduate student from the British University in Cairo, Egypt.
Current Position: Technical Competence Lead at ASML, Eindhoven, Netherlands
(Summer 2013)
Mohamed Tawfeek
A visiting undergraduate student from the British University in Cairo, Egypt.
Current Position: Partner/Business Developer Manager at Devcco, Stockholm, Sweden
(Summer 2013)
Malik Wagih
A visiting undergraduate student from the British University in Cairo, Egypt.
Currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Materials Science and Engineering Department at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, MS, USA
(Winter 2013)