Victoria (Tori) Miller

Assistant Professor Victoria (Tori) Miller has been in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Florida since September 2019. Prior to her appointment at UF, she was an assistant professor at NC State University from 2017 to 2019.  She received her B.S.E. in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Michigan in 2011 and completed her Ph.D. in the Materials Department at the University of California Santa Barbara in 2016. After graduate school, she worked for a year at UES, Inc. as a Research Scientist onsite in the Materials and Manufacturing Directorate of the Air Force Research Laboratory in Dayton, OH. She had also previously worked at Ford Motor Company Research and Development, Toyota Engineering and Manufacturing North America, and Lockheed Martin Aeronautics. Outside the lab, she trains for and competes in powerlifting.

Justin Norkett

Justin graduated from North Carolina State University with a BS in MSE in 2014. Following a short stint in industry, he returned to NC State for graduate school in 2017 before being extradited to Florida where he is currently in holding. Justin’s academic interests include liquid metal embrittlement, corrosion, dungeoneering, stress corrosion cracking, extractive metallurgy, physical metallurgy, necromancy, chemical metallurgy, applied stencillurgy, and most other words ending in ‘-urgy’. Not a lich.

Project: DEMILICH

Recent Publication: “Liquid-metal-mediated recrystallization of zinc under ambient conditions”

Benjamin Anthony

Ben Anthony graduated from North Carolina State University with a Bachelor’s in Materials Science and Engineering in the fall of 2014. He has now ventured down to the University of Florida to seek a PhD in MSE and occasionally moonlight as a pirate, though not nearly as much as he used to. When not serving as the group’s source of eye-related puns, Ben spends his time working with magnesium alloys while holding an interest in thermomechanical processing and defense applications for materials. Ben was awarded the DoD NDSEG fellowship in 2019.

Project: IFRIT

Recent Publication: “Deformation twin interations with grain boundary particles in multi-phase magnesium alloys”

Benjamin Begley

Begley graduated from the University of Kentucky with a BS in MSE in 2018. He originally went to NC State for graduate school, but was liberated from his previous research group by the MONSTER group when they moved to UF. Begley researches microstructural evolution in thermomechanical titanium processing and during laser forming of sheet metals, but much to the group’s horror, harbors a bit of residual interest in polymers from his previous research. Group subject matter expert in balloons. Outside of work, Begley really enjoys hitting and kicking things. Thanks to the fact that he is a second Ben, he’s largely forgotten that Ben is his name, and instead answers to Begley and Frankie (not his name in any way whatsoever; ask Tim).

Project: GIαNT, ICME

Recent Publication: “Prediction of relative globularization rates in α+β titanium alloys as a function of initial crystal orientation”

Sarah Hamilton

I’m from Chicago, Illinois where I did my bachelors in mechanical engineering and my masters in materials science and engineering. I’m a nuclear fuels research engineer at the Idaho National Lab and I went back to school for my PhD to work more on future clean energy solutions.

Yonguk (Tony) Lee

Yonguk Lee graduated from the Inha University, South Korea and from the Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago. He earned his first BS in MSE from the IIT in the winter of 2020, then got this second BS in MSE from the Inha University in the summer of 2021. His two years at the IIT have affected on his research interest a lot; High temperature alloys/Ni base superalloys, and he decided to became a graduate student of the UF even though he is a winter person. He is also a big brother of Doo Doo (very cute Pomeranian) whose name has nothing to do with feces.

Project: Hγγ’DRA

Megan Hurley

Megan graduated from the University of Connecticut with a B.S.E. in Materials Science and Engineering in 2021. She decided to pursue graduate school at the University of Florida to migrate outside of New England and see what all the Snow Birds were on about. Megan’s research interests are focused on Steels. She is an avid tea drinker and she has a 9-year old Golden Retriever, Zoey, who still thinks she is a puppy.

Project: Steel

Tianchen (Kimi) Wei

Kimi received his B.S. in MSE from the Shaanxi University of Science and Technology, China. He started his master’s program in Spring 2021. Because he is an enthusiast of formula racing, there is no surprise why he is now doing some research on laser forming of metals. He can play the accordion and it will be an useful skill if he begins his pirate life after graduation. By the way, this photo is the first step that he tries to communicate with a real “pirate” !

Project: Laser Forming

Tim Eldred (Adjunct Graduate Student)

Tim is an nth-year PhD student at NC State working as the adjunct microscopist and just…doing his best. He received his B.S. in Chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in 2016. Tim’s research focuses on using cutting edge microscopy to solve problems in Materials Engineering more efficiently and precisely. Views any sample phenomena larger than 1 x 1 micron as a bulk property. The one who named Frankie.

Cameron Frampton

Cameron is a Senior in Material Science and Engineering at the University of Florida. His plan after graduating is to get his MS and PhD in MSE with his focus being on quantum materials. In his free time he learns languages, machine learning, neural networks and physics. The current language he is learning is Russian and the topic of physics he is learning is quantum mechanics.

Project: DEMILICH, Steel, ICME

Scott Bentz

Scott is a Senior studying Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Florida. He is working towards a bachelor’s degree, and plans to work in industry once graduated with a specialization in metals. In his free time, he loves to root for underwhelming sports teams, lift weights, and play FPS games. Whenever the opportunity arises, he loves to travel across the globe.

Project: ABOLETH

Justin Geils

Justin is a third-year undergraduate student studying Material Science and Engineering at the University of Florida with an interest in metals and biomaterials. He was diagnosed with type one diabetes when he was two. On a completely unrelated note, his friends like to call him Jiggles. Justin enjoys his free time playing volleyball, gaming, and watching an acceptable amount of anime.

Project: Artificial Muscles

Miles Kendall

Miles is a third-year student in Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Florida. He intends to get his BS and immediately enter the work force, working his way up the ladder. In his free time he likes to overanalyze shows and movies, play video games, and read books from right to left. One day he wants to SCUBA dive at the Great Barrier Reef.

Project: GIαNT

Cameron Hale

Cameron graduated with his M.S. in MSE from the MONSTER group in Summer 2021 after working on the HeRX project.

Jennifer A. Perez

Jennifer Amanda Perez is a third year student in Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Florida. Born in Managua, Nicaragua Jennifer traveled from her small municipal state to the tourist-filled and cultural-rich city of Miami, Florida in 2010. She received her Associates in Art for Chemistry from the Miami-Dade College (MDC) Wolfson Campus in 2018 where she worked as a STEM Tutor, assisted as an undergrad in research at the University of Miami, MDC’s physics and chemistry departments and attended multiple symposiums from 2017 to 2018. Outside of school she enjoys learning American Sign Language (ASL), journaling and binge watching dystopian films.

Thomas Spradley

Thomas Spradley is a second-year MSE undergraduate at the University of Florida with interests in metals and perovskite ceramics and specific interests in photovoltaics. When he is not enjoying the toil of taking nearly all of his classes out of curriculum order so his last two years in college are in credit hour limbo, he passes time playing the drums, guitar, flute, banjolin, and a questionable hourage of subtitled anime. He is also a bowyer, archer, and avid environmentalist that doesn’t pass the chance to bike to Publix for groceries. He plans on getting a Masters and PhD in a renewable energy related field of materials.

Ivan Tapia

Andrew Talburt

HeRX Project, UF, Fall 2019

LME Project, UF, Fall 2019 – Spring 2020