Light-driven catalysis offers a promising pathway towards more sustainable chemical transformations due to milder process conditions and the potential to capitalize on sunlight as a scalable, carbon-free energy source. This course explores applications of such photocatalytic systems in important reactions and sectors - including CO2 upgrading, pharmaceuticals, and microplastic mitigation - covering fundamental concepts related to redox chemistry and thermodynamics, optoelectronic properties of photocatalytic materials, and photocatalyst/photoreactor design.

This course introduces the concepts of soft condensed matter and their use in understanding the mechanical properties, dynamic behavior, and self-assembly of living biological materials. We will take an engineering approach that emphasizes the application of fundamental physical concepts to a diverse set of problems taken from the literature, including mechanical properties of biopolymers and the cytoskeleton, directed and random molecular motion within cells, aggregation and collective movement of cells, and phase transitions and critical behavior in the self-assembly of lipid membranes and intracellular structures.

An introductory course on materials used civil and environmental engineering. Lectures on structure and properties of construction materials including concrete, steel, glass and timber; fracture mechanics; strength testing; mechanisms of deterioration; impact of material manufacturing on the environment. Labs on brittle fracture, heat treatment of steel, strength of concrete, mechanical properties of wood.

The course presents the fundamentals of wave propagation in structures and materials with special emphasis on an emerging class of structural systems known as acoustic or elastic metamaterials. The course blends theory, simulations and laboratory testing to bridge between the fundamentals of wave mechanics and the creativity-driven design principles of metamaterials engineering. The theory section is presented through an intuitive, yet rigorous approach that combines physical arguments and mathematical modeling. To enhance concept retention, the concepts are visualized by numerical simulations and selected laboratory demonstrations.

This course explores material and optical design strategies for thermal management of buildings. In the first part of the course, we cover fundamental aspects of thermal radiation and light-matter interactions in built and natural environments. The second part covers traditional and emerging materials and strategies for radiative thermoregulation of buildings. Specific topics include traditional designs such as cool-roof films and low-E coatings, emerging materials like radiative coolers, and adaptive coolers/heaters, and their impact within buildings and the broader environment.

The course focuses on the linear and non-linear rheology of colloidal materials and materials processing and solidification mechanisms. The rheological sections of the course focus on the fundamentals of rheological properties, viscoelasticity, flow, and constitutive models. The materials processing sections focus on chemistry, physics, and mechanics principles governing the behavior of materials and particulate. The course objective is to teach a framework for quantitative analyses of materials' rheological responses and processes and help students understand materials' capabilities and limitations.

This class will teach you about optical and photonic sensing technologies and their applications to environmental monitoring. The course will contain elements of atmospheric science and Earth observation, fundamentals of optics, photonics and laser physics, as well as a survey of modern optical and spectroscopic sensing applications. In this course students will be asked to prepare two oral presentations and there will be three laboratory assignments focused on fundamentals of optical sensing

This introductory graduate course focuses on theory and applications of subwavelength optical elements (SOEs) that have features smaller than the wavelength of light, and work with principles differently from traditional and diffractive optics, offering unique optical capabilities. For example, SOEs create new functionality ultra-thin optical systems in a thickness < 1 micron. The main course topics include: (1) rigorous Maxwell theory for SOEs, (2) mean-field theory for SOEs, (3) non-resonant SOEs, (4) resonant SOEs (photonic crystals), (5) nano-plasmonics, and (6) active optical devices using SOE.

Introduction to theoretical techniques for understanding and modeling nanophotonic systems, emphasizing important algebraic properties of Maxwell's equations. Topics covered include Hermitian eigensystems, photonic crystals, Bloch's theorem, symmetry, band gaps, omnidirectional reflection, localization and mode confinement of guided and leaky modes. Techniques covered include Green's functions, density of states, numerical eigensolvers, finite-difference and boundary-element methods, coupled-mode theory, scattering formalism, and perturbation theory.

The course covers concepts related to the chemistry of inorganic and organic materials found in the pristine and contaminated settings in the Earth surface environments, with an introduction to the modern field sampling techniques and advanced laboratory analytical and imaging tools. Different materials characterization methods, such as optical, infrared, and synchrotron X-ray spectroscopy and microscopy, will also be introduced. Field sampling and analysis of materials from diverse soil and coastal marine environments will be the focus during the second half of the semester.

When something seems to defy our understanding of how the world works, we would call it magical. Throughout human history, development of new materials was associated with magic because it made things that were formerly impossible or incomprehensible possible. The durability of a steel tool must have seemed magical for the bronze age worker. The Internet, instant access to all information of humankind at the touch of a button would have been incomprehensible a hundred years ago.This class will talk about the magic materials people encountered throughout history, what equates to magic materials today and how might they shape our future.

An introduction to the structure and properties of important current and future materials, including metals, ceramics, semiconductors, polymers. Emphasis will be placed on the phase behavior, processing of materials, and how the structure of these materials affect their physical, mechanical, electrical and thermal properties.

This course examines methods for simulating matter at the atomistic scale with emphasis on the concepts that underline modern computational methodologies for classical many-body systems at or near statistical equilibrium. The course covers Monte Carlo and Molecular Dynamics (from basics to advanced techniques), and includes an introduction to molecular coarse graining and the use of Machine Learning techniques in molecular simulations.

A multidisciplinary course offering a practical introduction to techniques of imaging structure and compositional analysis of advanced materials. Focus on principles and applications of various characterization methods. Covered topics include AFM, SEM, TEM, XRD, EDX/WDX, EELS, Raman, Ellipsometry, Confocal Microscopy, sample preparation and image processing, etc. Hands-on experience is emphasized.

Composites, porous media, foams, colloids, geological media, and biological media are all examples of heterogeneous materials. The relationship between the macroscopic (transport, mechanical, electromagnetic, and chemical) properties and material microstructure is formulated. Topics include statistical characterization of the microstructure; percolation theory; fractals; sphere packings; Monte Carlo techniques; image analysis; homogenization theory; cluster and perturbation expansions; variational bounding techniques; topology optimization methods; and cross-property relations. Biological and cosmological applications are discussed.

This class addresses the practical aspects, theory, implementation and utilization of optimization in conjunction with analysis tools. It aims to acquaint the student with the state-of-the-art optimization techniques and their application to engineering problems. Besides traditional methods, it introduces the modern and powerful topology optimization method together with its application to material and structural systems. In this context, it also introduces rapid prototyping and 3D/4D printing techniques at different scales.

This is a one-semester course in advanced quantum mechanics, and counts as a "core course" in the physics graduate program. The emphasis is on topics relevant to quantum information, quantum computation, entanglement, and many-body quantum dynamics.

Course introduces and presents ongoing theoretical investigations of new research topics in condensed matter physics: topological insulators and Chern numbers, topological superconductors, the fractional quantum Hall effect and non-abelian statistics, flat-band systems, spin liquids. The techniques needed to deal with such systems, such as Chern numbers, topological band theory, Berry phases, conformal field theory, Chern-Simons theory, t-J models, Gutzwiller wavefunctions, Hubbard models, are explained.