MSE is pleased to announce the following promotions: Geeta Mehta to full professor, Yiyang Li and Wenhao Sun to Associate Professor, and Kai Sun to Associate Research Scientist.

Professor Geeta Mehta's research uses biomaterials and microtechnology to engineer cellular microenvironments and investigate biological processes relevant to ovarian and breast cancers, as well as bone marrow stem cells. Her work spans cancer microenvironments, stem cell engineering, tissue regeneration, microfluidics, biomechanics, biomaterials, and tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Mehta’s recent accomplishments include receiving an American Cancer Society Research Scholar Award (2019–2023) and serving as Track Co-Chair for Cellular and Molecular Engineering at the 2022 BMES Annual Conference. Her research continues to advance the use of engineered microenvironments to better understand disease biology and develop approaches for tissue regeneration and therapeutic discovery. Mehta earned her Ph.D. from Michigan State University in 2013 and joined the MSE faculty in 2014. She served as chair of the MSE Ph.D. graduate program from 2024-2026.

Associate Professor Yiyang Li's research focuses on developing electrochemical materials for energy storage, brain-inspired computing, and information processing. His work exploits the high concentration and mobility of point defects in ionic materials, which can function as dynamically tunable dopants. By controlling these defects electrochemically, his research aims to enable high-density energy and information storage. His work centers on the lithium, proton, and oxygen ions and their interactions with a range of host materials.  Li, who holds a Ph.D. from Stanford University, joined the MSE faculty is 2020. 2024 Young Faculty Award from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). 

Associate Professor Wenhao Sun's research addresses fundamental scientific challenges in computational materials design and discovery. His group combines high-throughput density functional theory, applied thermodynamics, and materials informatics to understand synthesis–structure–property relationships and explore new chemical spaces for functional materials. A central focus of his work is developing quantitative, predictive theories of inorganic materials synthesis, particularly models of non-equilibrium crystallization pathways that can guide the experimental synthesis of novel compounds. By bridging computational materials discovery with synthesis science, inorganic chemistry, and materials thermodynamics, Sun’s research aims to accelerate the development of next-generation materials in support of the goals of the U.S. Materials Genome Initiative. Sun earned his Ph.D. from MIT in 2016 and joined the MSE faculty in 2020. 

Associate Research Scientist Kai Sun's research involves characterization of materials by analytical electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy techniques, and synthesis of nanostructured materials by electron and focused ion beams as well as wet chemical methods.