Extreme Engineer of the Month

Education: B.S. in Physics, Iowa State University M.S. and Ph.D. in Astrophysics, University of Chicago Favorite Classes: Quantum mechanics because this knowledge made her realize how different the world is from what it seems. Best Skills: Problem solving. Hobbies: Traveling, long distance running, and spending time with her husband and two-year-old son. Role Models: Katsuyo says she was lucky to have great mentors, including her undergraduate research advisor, who made her believe she could do something important. She hopes to do the same for the students she teaches. Advice: Problem-solving skills are the most important skills. They allow you to analyze and solve problems. It's very important to think about how you are approaching the problem when taking math classes. Take advantage of computational power-not just programming. How you solve math problems provides a way to thinking about how to approach programming.

Katsuyo discovered engineering quite by accident after already having earned a Ph.D. in astrophysics. A friend, who was a materials engineer, needed assistance solving a problem and turned to Katsuyo for her skills in mathematical modeling. Through this process Katsuyo learned her skills were valuable beyond astrophysics, and she enjoyed applying them to a challenge with a tangible outcome. So she switched fields and did a Post-Doctorate program in materials engineering, learning what she needed about engineering and materials engineering as she went along.

Instead of taking classes in engineering, she was told she should teach. She leveraged her background in astrophysics to teach courses in computational mathematics and electronics materials, which focused on semi-conductors and advanced applications, such as using quantum dots to make lasers.

Katsuyo's specialty is now computational materials science and engineering. She models materials and solves the model using computers to generate a set of equations. These equations describe how the material will behave. "Once you identify the governing physics," she says, "you can develop sets of equations that can be solved using computer programs." With these solutions, you can predict what the material might do. For example, if you have a material that needs to have a durable lifetime of 10 years, it's impractical to do experiments for 10 years. But with computer simulation, you can accelerate the clock without changing testing conditions, something that's hard to do in the lab. "With computer modeling you can create a perfect laboratory," she says, "where you can change one parameter without changing others." In a physical lab, if you change the temperature, you are also changing other factors, she explained, because materials are temperature sensitive. Computer simulation allows you to change one thing at a time.

Katsuyo works on a variety of mathematical modeling methods, which can be applied to many materials. For example, she works with metals for structural properties and other materials for magnetic properties. The five projects she manages all concern the microstructure of materials. When the microstructure changes, the performance changes. Her focus is controlling the microstructure to optimize performance.

One project she is working on is fuel cells, which take hydrogen and react it with oxygen to create a current. This complicated process requires porous materials to transport of the hydrogen gas and oxygen ions and conduct the electrons away to create current. The reaction occurs at the triple junction where all three aspects of the process come together. Katsuyo is working on optimizing the process to increase the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of fuel cells. Fuel cells are a reality today, but they are currently too expensive to use to generate power. Her other projects include the following:

• Working with magnetic storage materials to increase the storage capacity.

• Developing structural materials for airplane engines and electrical generators. By changing the microstructure, you can create a material that is stable at higher temperatures, which allows an engine to become more fuel efficient and also extends its life.

• Experimenting with lasers to diagnose damage in structural components. If the laser finds certain elements such as silicon or calcium, you will know that there's fatigue or damage to the component.

• Applying these techniques to soft materials such as cells and studying how the shape of a cell affects cell death or the ability to take a nutrient in. This basic research could be applied to drug delivery and targeting certain cells with a drug, such as in chemotherapy.

While these areas of research seem diverse, they are all very interesting to Katsuyo, and she is applying the same basic set of research skills to each. "I consider myself to be in a lucky place and time to actually start predicting how materials will function. I want to make a contribution by improving materials to allow electrical or hydrogen vehicles to become a reality."