Siu-Wai Chan Presents Distinguished Lecture at Cornell University

Siu-Wai Chan, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Columbia Engineering, presented the Dr. Lei Tian Distinguished Lecture Series in Materials Science & Engineering at Cornell University. The lecture series highlights leading research in materials science and engineering.

Chan’s research focuses on the size-dependent properties of nano-ceramics and crystalline interfaces, including their mechanical, electronic, and electrical behavior. Her work explores grain boundaries and interfaces used in technologies such as varistors and CMOS-FETs, as well as fundamental properties of nano-oxides, including bulk modulus and bond lengths.

After receiving a doctoral degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Materials Science and Engineering under Prof. Robert W. Balluffi, Dr. Chan joined Bell Labs NJ (later Bellcore) as a scientist before becoming an associate professor at Columbia University. Prof. Chan’s research has covered grain boundaries and interfaces in gold and aluminum, as well as in superconducting ceramics and super-ionic conductors where boundaries play major roles in determining current flow as supercurrent and ionic-current, respectively.  Understanding the boundary structures enables the discovery of solutions to improve the desired materials properties. Prof. Chan’s recent research concentrates on nano-oxide crystals, the effects of crystal-size on bond-length, stiffness, thermal expansion, heat capacity, solubility, redox potentials and phase stability. Research results impact applications in catalysis, microelectronics, gas-sensing, biomedical therapies, micro-electro-mechanics and solid-state fuel cells. 

Prof. Chan is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Ceramic Society.  

Prof. Chan has received Dupont Faculty Award, IBM Faculty Award, BASF Award, fellowships from John Simon Guggenheim Foundation and from Tan Chin Tuan Foundation at Nanyang Technological University of Singapore, and Faculty Diversity award from Columbia University. 

Dr. Chan was honored as Presidential Faculty Fellow PFF (a forerunner of Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers PECASE)) from President Clinton.