S. Pamir Alpay

photo of Professor AlpauS. Pamir Alpay
Vice President for Research, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship
Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor
Ph.D., University of Maryland (1999)

Department of Materials Science and Engineering
25 King Hill Road
Storrs, CT 06269

Office: MZ-108
Phone: (860) 486-6917
Email: pamir.alpay@uconn.edu   Web: http://alpay.ims.uconn.edu

 

Research Interests

  • Multiscale modeling of materials
  • Ferroic and multiferroic materials
  • Conducting oxides
  • Polarizable semiconductors
  • Tunable dielectrics for microwave devices
  • Defect microstructures in functional materials
  • Materials for electrical contacts
  • Electrothermal properties of materials (IR detection, on-chip heating/cooling)

 Awards & Honors

2020 Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor
2020 Fellow of ASM International
2018 Elected Fellow of the American Ceramic Society
2018 UConn-The American Association of Professors (AAUP) Excellence in Career Research and Creativity Award
2017 General Electric Professor in Advanced Manufacturing
2014 Elected Fellow of the American Physical Society
2013 Outstanding Faculty Advisor Award, University of Connecticut
2013 University of Connecticut Materials Science and Engineering Award for Teaching Excellence
2012 Elected Member of Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering
2008-2010 United Technologies Corporation (UTC) Professor in Engineering Innovation Award
2004 Outstanding Junior Faculty Award of the School of Engineering, University of Connecticut
2001 National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award

Recent Publications

Gurung, M. F. Ishtiyaq, S. P. Alpay, J. Mangeri, S. Nakhmanson “Extrinsic Dielectric Response due to Domain Wall Motion in Ferroelectric BaTiO3,” Computational Materials Today 5, 100016 (2025), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.commt.2024.100016

A. Anene and S. P. Alpay, “First-Principles Modeling of Interfacial Adhesion Strength of Epoxy Resins on Copper Surfaces,” J. Phys. Chem. C 129, 3862 (2025), https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.4c07792

Ozuguzel, S. Safaltin, S. P. Alpay, K. Alkadry, R. Nieman, C. Korzeniewski, A. J. A. Aquino, “Influence of Ligand Complexity on the Spectroscopic Properties of Type 1 Copper Sites: A Theoretical Study,” Journal of Computational Chemistry 46, e70013 (2025), https://doi.org/10.1002/jcc.70013

Paudel and S. P. Alpay, “Strain-tunable Robust Ferroelectricity in Two-dimensional Mono-chalcogenide Heterostructures,” Appl. Surf. Sci. 682, 161785 (2025), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsusc.2024.161785

Yavas, M. Li, C. J. Hung, R. J. Hebert, S. P. Alpay, and M. Aindow, “Transformations in Laser Track Microstructures for a Quasicrystal-reinforced Al-Cu-Fe-Cr Alloy,” Materials Characterization 217, 114345 (2024), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matchar.2024.114345

M. Atkinson, S. P. Alpay, and M. Guziewski, “First-principles Analysis of the Local Atomic Environment in Calcium Lanthanum Sulfide Ceramics,” Acta Mater. 271, 119881 (2024), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2024.119881

K. Reid, S. P. Alpay, A. V. Balatsky, and S. K. Nayak, “Inducing Quantum Phase Transitions in Non-Topological Insulators Via Atomic Control of Sub-Structural Elements,” Phys. Rev. B 108, 235402 (2023), https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.108.235402

Wang, S. Sahoo, J. Gascon, M. Bragin, F. Liu, J. Olchowski, S. Rothfarb, Y. Huang, W. Xiang, P-X Gao, S. P. Alpay, and B. Li, “Deciphering electrochemical interactions in metal–polymer catalysts for CO2 reduction,” Energy & Environmental Science 16, 4388-4403 (2023), https://doi.org/10.1039/D3EE01647A

Gurung, J. M. Mangeri, A. M. Hagerstrom, N. D. Orloff, S. P. Alpay, and S. Nakhmanson, “Modeling Structure-Properties Relations in Compositionally Disordered Relaxor Dielectrics at the Nanoscale,” J. Appl. Phys. 134, 104102 (2023), https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0160448

Delodovici, C. Atkinson, R. Xu, P-E. Janolin, S.P. Alpay, C. Paillard, “Engineering the Electro-optic effect in HfO2 and ZrO2 through Strain and Polarization Control,” J. Appl. Phys. 134, 055108 (2023), https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0158909