Justin Mayer, PhD Candidate

Justin

Research Interests

I am a fifth year graduate student co-advised by Professor Ram Seshadri, Professor Tresa M. Pollock, and Professor Irene J. Beyerlein. My research examines the relationships between atomic order, microstructure, and magnetism. I perform atomistic calculations using either density functional theory, or molecular dynamics, to inform phase-field calculations at the mesoscopic level. I am also particularly interested in code development.

Education

Ph.D. Candidate, Materials Department, UC Santa Barbara, 2019–Present.

B.S. Chemical Engineering and Physics, Northeastern University, 2014–2018.

Previous Research

Mefford Research Group

A research experience for undergraduates at Clemson University in 2015 exposed me to the field of materials science for the first time. This research, under Dr. O. Thompson Mefford, focused on the quantitative study of ligand exchange kinetics on the surface of aged iron oxide nanoparticles. A better understanding of ligand exchange kinetics, especially in the context of aged nanoparticles, is needed if these nanoparticles are to be implemented in future biomedical applications.


HRL Laboratories

In May of 2016 I arrived in Malibu, CA to begin a seven month co-op at HRL. I worked as part of a team of scientists and engineers to demonstrate the successful 3D printing of aluminum 7075, a high strength alloy that was believed to be unweldable. After graduating in 2018, I returned to HRL to help the team further develop this technology so that it can one day be used to 3D print any unweldable alloy. I also worked on several other projects including: the development of Matlab scripts to analyze x-ray computed tomography (XCT) measurements of a ceramic composite during fracture and the design of a Rubidium source and sink for future atomic clocks.


CIMaINA, University of Milan

I spent the second half of 2017 in Milan, Italy working for Dr. Marcel Di Vece and Dr. Cristina Lenardi at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Nanostructured Materials and Interfaces (CIMaINA). My research focused on the characterization of thin films of amorphous Si deposited on Au nanoparticles. Through x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements and Argon sputtering I was able to evaluate the chemical composition found at the amorphous Si/Au nanoparticle interface.

Publications

  1. B. E. Rhodes, P. Garg, N. Maria della Ventura, J. A. Mayer, I. J. Beyerlein, and D. S. Gianola, Deformation pseudo-twinning of the L21-ordered intermetallic superlattice, Submitted.

  2. A. J. Bologna, R. Vincent, A. Kallistova, J. A. Mayer, M. A. Wright, C. de la Cruz, R. Zhang, F. Seeler, K. Schierle-Arndt, and R. Seshadri, Pyrolized "black mass" feedstocks and their synthetic proxies from Li-ion battery recycling, Submitted.

  3. B. E. Rhodes, J. A. Mayer, W. S. Cunningham, A. Genc, S. Comby-Dassonneville, T. W. Cornelius, O. Thomas, R. Seshadri, Y. M. Eggeler, I. J. Beyerlein, and D. S. Gianola, Defect-level origins of giant magnetoplastic coupling in MnCu2Al, Submitted.

  4. A. Ademola Odusanya, D. Kumar, J. David Schall, J. A. Mayer, and R. Sakidja, Computational approach to modeling electronic properties of Titanium Oxynitride systems, Comput. Mater. Sci. 245 (2024) 113292 [doi]

  5. J. A. Mayer, K. V. Vamsi, R. Seshadri, and T. M. Pollock, Antiphase boundaries in B2 intermetallics: proximate structures, formation energies, and chemical stability, Phys. Rev. Mater. 8 (2024) 013610 [doi]

  6. B. E. Rhodes, J. A. Mayer, S. Xu, J. D. Lamb, J. Wendorf, M. P. Echlin, T. M. Pollock, Y. M. Eggeler, I. J. Beyerlein, and D. S. Gianola, Deformation mechanisms and defect structures in Heusler intermetallic MnCu2Al, Acta Mater. (2024) 119711 [doi]

  7. A. Pramanik, J. A. Mayer, S. S. Sinha, P. C. Sharma, S. Patibandla, Y. Gao, L. R. Corby, J. T. Bates, M. A. Bierdeman, R. Tandon, R. Seshadri, and P. C. Ray, Human ACE2 peptide-attached plasmonic-magnetic heterostructure for magnetic separation, surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy identification, and inhibition of different variants of SARS-CoV-2 infections, ACS. Appl. Bio Mater. 5 (2022) 4454–4464. [doi]

  8. J. A. Mayer and R. Seshadri, Electron count dictates phase separation in Heusler alloys, Phys. Rev. Mater. 6 (2022) 054406 [doi]

  9. E. E. Levin, D. A. Kitchaev, Y. M. Eggeler, J. A. Mayer, P. Behera, D. S. Gianola, A. Van der Ven, T. M. Pollock, and R. Seshadri, Influence of plastic deformation on the magnetic properties of Heusler MnAu2Al, Phys. Rev. Mater. 5 (2021) 014408 [doi]

  10. J. H. Martin, B. Yahata, J. A. Mayer, R. Mone, E. Stonkevitch, J. Miller, M. O'Masta, T. Schaedler, J. Hundley, P. Callahan, and T. Pollock, Grain refinement mechanisms in additively manufactured nanofunctionalized aluminum, Acta Mater. 200 (2020) 1022–1037. [doi]

  11. A. Pramanik, J. A. Mayer, S. Patibandla, K. Gates, Y. Gao, D. Davis, R. Seshadri, and P. C. Ray, Mixed-dimensional heterostructure material-based SERS for trace level identification of breast cancer-derived exosomes, ACS Omega 5 (2020) 16602–16611. [doi]

  12. C. Lenardi, J. A. Mayer, G. Faraone, J. Cardoso, S. Marom, R. Modi, A. Podestá, S. Kadkhodazadch, and M. Di Vece, Nanoscale induced formation of silicide around gold nanoparticles encapsulated in a-Si, Langmuir 36 (2020) 939–947. [doi]

  13. J. Cardoso, S. Marom, J. A. Mayer, R. Modi, A. Podestá, X. Xie, M. A van Huis, and M. Di Vece, Germanium Quantum Dot Grätzel-Type Solar Cell, Phys. Status Solidi A 215 (2018) 1800570. [doi]

  14. J. H. Martin, B. D. Yahata, E. C. Clough, J. A. Mayer, J. M. Hundley, and T. A. Schaedler, Additive manufacturing of metal matrix composites via nanofunctionalization, MRS Commun. 8 (2018) 297–302. [doi]

  15. K. Davis, M. Vidmar, A. Khasanov, B. Cole, M. Ghelardini, J. A. Mayer, C. Kitchens, A. Nath, B. A. Powell, and O. T. Mefford, The effect of post-synthesis aging on the ligand exchange activity of iron oxide nanoparticles, J. Colloid Interface Sci. 511 (2018) 374–382. [doi]

  16. J. H. Martin, B. D. Yahata, E. C. Clough, R. D. Mone, J. A. Mayer, E. Stonkevitch, R. C. Schubert, J. A. Miller, J. M. Hundley, T. A. Schaedler, and T. M. Pollock, Recent advances in additive manufacturing of high strength 7000 series aluminum, Adv. Mater. Proc. 176 (2018) 18–22. [doi]

  17. J. H. Martin, B. D. Yahata, J. M. Hundley, J. A. Mayer, T. A. Schaedler, and T. M. Pollock, 3D printing of high-strength aluminium alloys, Nature 549 (2017) 365–369. [doi]

Links

LinkedIn
Curriculum Vitae
Google Scholar Profile
Seshadri Research Group
Pollock Research Group
Beyerlein Research Group

Contact

Justin Mayer, Graduate Student
Materials Research Laboratory
University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-5121
email: jmayer [at] mrl.ucsb.edu