The Speakers

Katerina (Kathy) Christofidou joined the department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Sheffield in 2019, and was appointed Chair in Digital and Sustainable Metallurgy in April 2024. She is currently the Director of Recruitment for the department and leads the Advanced Metals Processing research area for the Henry Royce Institute. She holds a PhD in Metallurgy from the University of Cambridge and an MEng in Aerospace Materials Engineering from Imperial College London. Kathy's research focuses on bridging high performance alloy design and advanced manufacturing. As part of her collaboration with Rolls-Royce PLC, she has developed new polycrystalline Ni-based superalloys for turbine disc applications, as well as exploring strategies for the design of high-temperature materials amenable to laser-based additive layer manufacturing. Her work in this area was recognised with the 2022 IOM3 Grünfeld Award and Medal highlighting her contributions and impact to industry.

Zack Cordero received his SB in physics from MIT in 2010. After working one year in the materials science division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Zack returned to MIT to pursue a PhD in materials science and engineering, where his research focused on the powder-route synthesis of bulk nanostructured tungsten alloys. Upon graduating in 2015, Zack moved to a postdoctoral fellowship appointment in the Manufacturing Demonstration Facility of Oak Ridge National Laboratory where he developed process monitoring, quality control, and microstructure design tools for power-bed, metal additive manufacturing technologies. In 2016, Zack launched his independent career as an assistant professor in the Materials Science and NanoEngineering department at Rice University. In 2020, he moved to MIT’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Zack’s research program at MIT integrates his expertise in processing science, mechanics, and design to develop novel materials and structures for emerging aerospace applications.

Mengying Liu is an Assistant Professor of Engineering at Washington and Lee University. Her primary research interests focus on the environmental degradation of metallic materials. This includes specific projects on hydrogen embrittlement of Ni-based alloys and localized corrosion of pure Ni. Liu employs techniques like scanning electron microscopy characterization with digital image correlation to explore the structure-properties relationship of these materials. She holds a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from Texas A&M University and an undergraduate degree from Tianjin University in China. Liu is an awardee from the American Association of University Women, known for her passion for mentoring female students and fostering their growth, both academically and personally.

McCue is a tenure-track Assistant Professor, and the Morris E. Fine Junior Professor in Materials and Manufacturing, at Northwestern University in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. His research group focuses on designing superior materials for extreme applications – e.g., aerodynamic, radiation, and corrosion – and understanding how their microstructures evolve in these environments. He received his PhD degree in Materials Science and Engineering from Johns Hopkins University in 2015, and received a Materials Research Society Silver Graduate Student Award in 2014 for his dissertation work. He then held a postdoctoral appointment at Texas A&M University from 2016-2018, and was a Senior Scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory from 2018-2022. He has been an invited speaker at two Gordon Research Conferences: the 2019 Physical Metallurgy, and 2022 Structural Nanomaterials. He received a NASA Early Career Faculty Award in 2021 to develop solutions to bonding nitinol to dissimilar alloys, and a DARPA Young Faculty Award in 2023 to develop a new method to rapidly evaluate the mechanical properties of metals at high strain rates.

Liliana Romero-Resendiz is currently an assistant professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), Mexico (since 2022), Senior Marie Curie Research Fellow at Bournemouth University, UK (since 2023), and Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham, UK (since 2023). She was a postdoctoral fellow at the City University of Hong Kong, China (2021-2022). She obtained her Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering under a project co-guided by UNAM, Mexico, and the Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain (2021). She was a lecturer at the Engineering College of UNAM (2019-2020). She has been awarded the Marie Curie Fellowship from the European Union and the Juan de la Cierva Fellowship from the Spanish Ministry for Science and Innovation. Her research interest includes the processing-microstructure-properties relationship of heterostructured and nanostructured alloys, as well as developing biomaterials for antimicrobial and biomedical implant applications. She is currently a guest editor of special issues for the Crystals and Materials journals. She was chair of the Symposium on Materials Science and Engineering (Mexico, 2020) supported by the Material Research Society (MRS), member of the organizing committee of the First International Conference on Heterostructured Materials (Hong Kong, 2022), and chair of the “Heterostructured Materials: Fundamentals, Processing, Properties and Applications” international symposium supported by the MRS (Mexico, 2023).  She will be chair of the “Materials under Extreme Environments: Process-Structure-Property Relationship” international symposium of the MRS (Mexico, 2024). 

Dr. Jason Trelewicz is an Associate Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering at Stony Brook University with a joint appointment in the Institute for Advanced Computational Science.  His research explores the science of interface engineered materials for extreme environments using advanced characterization tools coupled with multi-scale modeling and simulation. Professor Trelewicz received his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2008.  Prior to joining Stony Brook University, he spent four years as Research Director at MesoScribe Technologies, Inc.  Professor Trelewicz is a recipient of the DOE Early Career Award (2017) and NSF Faculty Early Career Award (2016).  His work on ceramic composite moderators was selected by the Journal of Nuclear Materials for the 2022 Best Paper Award, and he also co-authored a manuscript selected for the 2022 Journal of Asian Ceramic Societies Best Paper Award.  Professor Trelewicz was recognized by Long Island Business News Power 25 in Education as a Top Innovator in Energy Research and Stony Brook University as a 40 Under 40 Honoree.  He received the Fusen and Yijen Chen Prize for Innovative Research in 2018 and Young Leader Professional Development Award from the Minerals, Metals, and Materials Society (TMS) in 2015.  Professor Trelewicz serves as Chair of the TMS Nuclear Materials Committee, Review Editor for Frontiers in Nuclear Engineering, Board of Review Member and Key Reader for Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A, and Chair of the Tungsten Alloys Working Group for the International Energy Agency Fusion Materials Technology Collaboration Program.