Humboldt Research Awards strengthen international collaboration in materials science

Dr Yuri Mishin and Prof. Sang Ho Oh cooperate with the Max Planck Institute for Sustainable Materials

At a glance

• Award: The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation has awarded the Humboldt Research Award to Yuri Mishin (George Mason University, USA) and Sang Ho Oh (Korea Institute of Energy Technology, Republic of Korea).
• Funding: The award provides €80,000 to each recipient and supports international research collaborations with institutions in Germany.
• Collaboration: Both researchers will work closely with scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Sustainable Materials (MPI-SusMat).
• Research focus: Atomistic simulations of defect phases, machine-learning for materials research and advanced electron microscopy.
• Goal: Understanding how materials behave at the atomic scale and designing more sustainable materials with tailored properties.

The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation has awarded the Humboldt Research Award to Yuri Mishin from George Mason University (USA)and to Sang Ho Oh from the Korea Institute of Energy Technology (Republic of Korea). The award, endowed with 80,000 euros for each researcher, recognizes internationally leading scientists and supports their collaboration with research institutions in Germany. Both awardees will work closely with researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Sustainable Materials (MPI-SusMat) on topics ranging from simulating defect phases and their influence on material properties to conducting advanced in situ experiments using transmission electron microscopes. The research aims to provide a fundamental understanding of materials at the atomic length scale, which is relevant to design sustainable materials for real-world applications.

Investigating materials properties through atomistic simulations – Yuri Mishin

“I’m honoured to receive the Humboldt Research Award and happy to strengthen my collaboration with the Max Planck team. Together, we will work towards a better understanding of defect phases, enabling us to tailor material properties,” says Mishin. Defect phases can affect properties such as hardness, ductility, diffusion, and ion transport, and therefore play an important role in technologies ranging from structural alloys to lithium-ion batteries.

Mishin is an internationally recognized expert in theoretical and computational materials science. His work has advanced atomistic simulation methods and machine-learning approaches to investigate the thermodynamic and kinetic behaviour of materials at the atomic scale.

During his collaboration with MPI-SusMat, Mishin plans to expand the current thermodynamic models of defect phases to complex multicomponent systems and investigate how defect-phase transformations influence the mechanical and functional properties of materials. The collaboration combines Mishin’s strong theoretical expertise with the institute’s advanced experimental capabilities in high-resolution characterization and computational materials science.

Understanding structure-property relationships with high-end microscopy – Sang Ho Oh

“I’m delighted to receive this Humboldt Research Award. Together with my colleagues at Max Planck, we will carry out in-situ experiments exploring high-entropy alloys and implement machine learning approaches to interpret experimental data and reconstruct material surfaces,” explains Oh.

Oh is an expert in advanced electron microscopy and nanoscale materials science. His research focuses on deformation mechanisms at the nanoscale, emergent atomic and electronic structures at interfaces and surfaces, and switching behaviour in thin-film devices - key areas for the development of next-generation technologies.

His pioneering work in real-time imaging has provided important insights into the dynamics of atoms, ions, and electrons under external stimuli. During his research stay in Germany, he plans to combine state-of-the-art in-situ electron microscopy with advanced analytical techniques to unravel atomic-scale processes in complex materials.

About the Humboldt Research Award

The Humboldt Research Award is granted annually by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation to outstanding international scientists in recognition of their lifetime achievements. Awardees are invited to conduct research projects in collaboration with colleagues in Germany and to independently select their preferred host institutions.

Mishin will be hosted by Professors Gerhard Dehm, Christina Scheu and Jörg Neugebauer at the Max Planck Institute for Sustainable Materials, while Oh will work with the teams of Scheu and Dehm, and additionally collaborate with Professor Christoph Koch at the Humboldt University of Berlin.

Author: Yasmin Ahmed Salem