Professor Bryan Huey Appointed Department Head of MSE
By Amanda Olavarria
Bryan Huey, Professor and Department Head, Materials Science & Engineering
Effective today, Professor Bryan Huey will fulfill the role of Department Head of the Materials Science and Engineering Department. He will be taking over this role from Professor Pamir Alpay, who has successfully led the department for the past five years.
Professor Huey recently served as a United Technologies Professor of Engineering Innovation as well as the Director for Graduate Students in MSE. His path to academia began with a B.S in Materials Science and Engineering at Stanford University in 1993. Professor Huey went on to obtain his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1999, where he first started working with AFM in Dawn Bonnell’s group. While there he developed scanning surface potential microscopy to attain the first nanoscale measurements of potential barriers in varistors.
After completing his Ph.D. he worked at Oxford University as a Marshall-Sherfield fellow and later as a NSF-international post doc. There he teamed up with A. Briggs and O. Kolosov to cultivate ultrasonic force microscopy for mechanical mapping of semiconducting materials.
Later he went to the NIST Ceramic Division as a NRC post doc where he examined ferroelectrics and piezoelectrics with J. Blendell. UConn MSE welcomed Professor Huey to the department in 2004. Since then, Huey has overseen the IMS NanoMeasurements lab, which serves as the UConn facility for atomic force microscopy (AFM) . This lab has featured the highest speed AFM imaging in the US, novel coupled AFM and 3-d optics for nano-bio-mechanics, pioneered AFM-based movies of switching in ferroelectrics, developed novel photovoltaic performance mapping for inorganic and molecular perovskite solar cells, and lately is focused on tomographic AFM (CT-AFM).
Huey’s research group also works with in-situ imaging of micro-electro- mechanical-systems, and the local properties of nanoscale materials and coatings. Professor Huey’s research group is typically funded by NSF, DOE, NIH, and many industrial partners.
Professor Huey’s teachings are often praised in his student evaluations. His classes focus on the topics of materials characterization, nanomaterials, and a course called Nanoscience and Society, which discusses ways to improve engineering recruitment and retention. He has been an invited participant to the NAE’s Frontiers for Engineering Education Program in recognition of this cutting-edge course, and as a keynote speaker focused on the impact of science on society for the Conference of Science and Technology Innovation in Nagaoka, Japan.
In 2007 Professor Huey was recognized as a MSE Outstanding Faculty Member for his research, teaching, and service. During the 2011- 2012 academic year Professor Huey was the Villum Foundation (VELUX ) Visiting Professor at the iNano Institute of Aarhus University in Denmark. In 2016 he received the Fulrath award for collaborative research and service between the US and Japan.
Professor Huey has published over 75 papers in a variety of journals such as Nature, Nanoletters, and Applied Physic Letters. He has co-organized one symposium per year and was recently asked to be one of five co-organizers for the ~7000 attendee MRS Fall meeting in 2019.
With support and patience from his wife Tina and son William, Professor Huey looks forward to furthering the excellence and success of MSE as the new head of the department. “There is outstanding potential for UConn MSE…we have excellent faculty, staff, and students, novel facilities, and strong institutional and industry support to expand our education, research and outreach even further.”
Published: December 1, 2017
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