Seok-Woo Lee

Associate Professor

Castleman Term Professor in Engineering Innovation

Department of Materials Science and Engineering

---

Education

Ph.D., Stanford University (2011)

Research Interests

Mechanical Behavior of Advanced Structural Materials, Dislocation Plasticity, Fracture Mechanics, Nano-Mechanics, Deformation Under Cryogenic Environment, High Strain Rate Deformation, Materials for Space Exploration, Metal Additive Manufacturing

Recent Publications

Seok-Woo Lee, Roser Valentí, Paul C. Canfield, “Review: Mechanical behaviors of ThCr2Si2-structured intermetallic compounds,” – in preparation

Seok-Woo Lee, “Scale-free nature of strain hardening in metals at the micrometer scale” – in preparation

Alexander Horvath, Zhongyuan Li, Gyuho Song, Seok-Woo Lee, “Tension-compression asymmetric behavior of screw dislocation in body-centered-cubic metal nanopillars,” Computational Materials Science (2025) – in preparation

72. Zachary Arenella, Sarshad Rommel, Zhongyuan Li, James A. Wollmershauser, Edward P. Gorzkowski, Boris N. Feigelson, Mark Aindow, Seok-Woo Lee “Grain size effect on microstructural evolution in nanocrystalline MgAl2O4 spinel under nanoindentation,” Acta Materialia (2025) – in preparation

Alexander Horvath, Juan Schmidt, Zhongyuan Li, Paul C. Canfield, Seok-Woo Lee, “Anisotropic hysteresis behavior of CaFe2As2 single crystal under micropillar compression and nanoindentation: Comparison between c-axis and a-axis loading,” Acta Materialia (2025) – in preparation

Zhongyuan Li, Nikhil Tiwale, Wonil Lee, Chang-Yong Nam, Seok-Woo Lee, “Achieving the ultrahigh modulus of resilience from interpenetrating-network ceramic-Tyler J. Flanagan, Benjamin Bedard, Kyle Wade, Avinash M. Dongare, Harold D. Brody, Victor K. Champagne Jr, Mark Aindow, Seok-Woo Lee, “Microstructure and micro-mechanical properties of Al6061 cold spray deposits,” Materials Science and Engineering A (2025) – in preparation

Moishe Y.E. Azoff-Slifstein, Anshuman Thakral, Sadiq S. Nishat, Zachary S. Arenella, Seok-Woo Lee, Daniel Gall, “Hardness Enhancement in MoN/MoC Superlattices,” Surface and Coatings Technology (2024) – will be submitted soon.

Chinthani Liyanage , Ngoc Vy , Sean McDermott , Jared Fee , Shuyang Xiao , Muhammed Gultekin , Rumesha Anthoni Perergae , Ali Bazzi , Seok-Woo Lee , Steven Suib, Douglas Adamson, “Polyamide membrane with embedded graphene-based RC circuit,” Nature (2025) – Under Review

Kyle P. Wade, Kyrus J. Tsai­, Avinash M. Dongare, Mark Aindow, Seok-Woo Lee, “The effect of cold spray deposition on microstructure and mechanical properties of a body-centered-cubic refractory metal,” Jounral of DoD Research and Engineering (2025) – Under Review

James Best, Samantha Lawrence, James Gibson, Seok-Woo Lee, “Nanoindentation’s imprint on an advanced society,” MRS Bulletin (2025) – Under Review

Juan Schmidt, Aashish Sapkota, Carcyn L. Mueller, Shuyang Xiao, Shuyuan Huyan, Tyler. J. Slade, Raquel A. Ribeiro, Seok-Woo Lee, Sergey L. Bud’ko, Paul. C. Canfield, “Tuning the structure and superconductivity of SrNi2P2 by Rh substitution,” Physical Review B (2025)  – ACCEPTED

Seok-Woo Lee, “Make materials that changes the world! Materials Science!,” (2024) – This book introduces Materials Science and Engineering to high schoolers! [Book contents and preface] [IngramSpark] [Amazon] [Barnes&Noble]

Zhongyuan Li, Ayush Bhardwaj, Jinlong He, Wenxin Zhang, Thomas T. Tran, Ying Li, Andrew McClung, Sravya Nuguri, James J. Watkins, Seok-Woo Lee, “Nanoporous amorphous carbon nanopillars with lightweight, near-theoretical strength, large fracture strain, and high damping capability,” Nature Communications 15, 8151 (2024)  [PDF.pdf][web] – highlighted in MSE Department News and AzoNano.

61. Shuyang Xiao, Adrian Valadkhani, Sarshad Rommel, Paul Canfield, Mark Aindow, Roser Valentí, Seok-Woo Lee, “Tension-compression asymmetry in superelasticity of SrNi2P2 single crystals and the influence of low temperatures,” Acta Materialia, 274, 119989 (2024) [PDF][web]

Tra Vinikoor, Godwin dzidotor, Thinh T. Le, Yang Liu, Ho-Man Kan, Srimanta Barui, Meysam T. Chorsi,  Eli J. Curry, Emily Reinhardt, Hanzhang Wang, Parbeen Singh, Marc A Merriman, Ethan D’orio, Shuyang Xiao, James H Chapman, Feng Lin, Cao-Sang Truong, Somasundaram Prasadh, Lisa Chuba, Shaelyn Killoh, Seok-Woo Lee, Qian Wu, Ramaswamy M. Chidambaram, Kevin W. H. Lo, Cato T. Laurencin, Thanh D. Nguyen, “Injectable and biodegradable piezoelectric hydrogel for medical applications,” Nature Communications, 14, 6257 (2023) [PDF][web]

Bryer C. Sousa, Mark Aindow, Seok-Woo Lee, Diana Lados, Anthony G. Spangenberger, Christopher M. Sample, Danielle L. Cote, “Ch.9. Characterization of cold-sprayed material consolidations,” Advances in Cold Spray (2nd ed.), Woodhead Publishing, 205-298 (2023) [PDF][web]

Physical Science, 4, 101475 (2023) [PDF][web][Editor’s Choice – 2023!] – featured at UConn Today Columbia University News, American Ceramic Society News, the Department of Energy (DOE) website, Tech Brief, and Science Tech Daily!

Shuyang Xiao, Sarshad Rommel, Kiera A. Burns, Aurora A. Buswell, Vladislav Borisov, Juan Schmidt, Roser Valentí, Paul C. Canfield, Mark Aindow, Seok-Woo Lee, “Effects of Rhodium doping on dislocation nucleation in a [001] SrNi2P2 single crystals under spherical nanoindentaiton,” Journal of Materials Research, 38, 3491–3503 (2023) [PDF][web] (Kiera A. Burns and Aurora A. Buswell are UConn undergraduate students!).

Jessica M. Maita, Sarshad Rommel, Jacob R. Davis, James A. Wollmershauser, Edward P. Gorzkowski, Boris N. Feigelson, Mark Aindow, Seok-Woo Lee, “Grain size dependence of mechanical properties of nanocrystalline magnesium aluminate MgAl2O4,” Acta Materialia, 251, 118881 (2023) [PDF][web]

Zhongyuan Li, Jinlong He, Nikhil Tiwale, Keith J. Dusoe, Chang-Yong Nam, Ying Li, Seok-Woo Lee, “Unraveling the ultrahigh modulus of resilience of sequential-infiltrated core-shell polymer nanocomposite nanopillars,” Materials & Design, 227, 111770 (2023) [PDF][web]

A. A. Hemeda, J. Xu, C. T. Wu, A. Mishra, D. Cote, Matthew Siopis, I. M. Nault, A. Nardi, V. K. Champagne, S. Lee, M. Aindow, J. W. Palko, and Y. Ma, “Heterogeneous distribution of mechanical properties of single particle cold spray impacts,”  Journal of Thermal Spray Technology, 31, 498–507 (2022) [PDF][web]

Yang Liu, Godwin Dzidotor, Thinh T. Le, Tra Nguyen, Kristin Morgan, Eli J. Curry, Ritopa Das, Aneesah McClinton, Ellen Eisenberg, Lorraine N. Apuzzo, Khanh T. M. Tran, Pooja Prasad, Tyler J. Flanagan, Seok-Woo Lee, Ho-Man Kan, Kevin W. H. Lo, Cato T. Laurencin, Thanh D. Nguyen, “Exercise-induced piezoelectric stimulation for cartilage regeneration,” Science Translational Medicine,  14, eabi7282 (2022) [PDF][web]

A. A. Hemeda, J. Xu, C. T. Wu, A. Mishra, D. Cote, Matthew Siopis, I. M. Nault, A. Nardi, V. K. Champagne, S. Lee, M. Aindow, J. W. Palko, and Y. Ma, “Heterogeneous Distribution of Mechanical Properties of Single Particle Cold Spray Impacts,”  Journal of Thermal Spray Technology (2022), 31, 498–507 (2022) [PDF][web]

Yang Liu, Godwin Dzidotor, Thinh T. Le, Tra Nguyen, Kristin Morgan, Eli J. Curry, Ritopa Das, Aneesah McClinton, Ellen Eisenberg, Lorraine N. Apuzzo, Khanh T. M. Tran, Pooja Prasad, Tyler J. Flanagan, Seok-Woo Lee, Ho-Man Kan, Kevin W. H. Lo, Cato T. Laurencin, Thanh D. Nguyen, “Exercise-induced piezoelectric stimulation for cartilage regeneration,” Science Translational Medicine,  14, eabi7282 (2022) [PDF][web]

Ian N. Bakst, John T. Sypek, Sriram Vijayan, Shuyang Xiao, Mark Aindow, Seok-Woo Lee, Christopher R. Weinberger,”Uniaxial compression of CaFe2As2 single crystals: the effects of microstructure and temperature on superelasticity – Part II: Modeling” Acta Materialia, 203, 116462 (2021)

John T. Sypek, Sriram Vijayan, Ian N. Bakst, Shuyang Xiao, Matthew J. Kramer, Paul C. Canfield, Mark Aindow, Christopher R. Weinberger, Seok-Woo Lee, “Uniaxial compression of CaFe₂As₂ single crystals: the effects of microstructure and temperature on superelasticity – Part I: Experimental Observation” Acta Materialia, 203, 116464 (2021)

Gyuho Song, Nicole K. Aragon, Ill Ryu, Seok-Woo Lee, “Low Temperature Failure Mechanism of [001] Niobium Micropillars Revealed by in-situ Cryogenic Micro-Tensile Tests and Dislocation Dynamics Simulations,” Journal of Materials Research (Invited Paper) (2021), First View, 1 (2021) – DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2020.252

Tyler J. Flanagan, Sriram Vijayan, Sergey Galitskiy, Jacob Davis, Benjamin Bedard, Avinash Dongare, Mark Aindow, Cyril L. Williams, Seok-Woo Lee, “Shock-induced deformation twinning and softening in magnesium single crystals,” Materials & Design 194, 108884, (2020).

Jessica M. Maita, Gyuho Song, Mariel Colby, Seok-Woo Lee, “Atomic arrangement and mechanical properties of amorphous boron,” Materials & Design 193, 108856 (2020).

Cain J. Hung, Sanjeev K. Nayak, Yu Sun, Colette Fennessy, Venkat K. Vedula, Sonia Tulyani, Seok-Woo Lee, Pamir Alpay, “Novel Al-X alloys with improved hardness,” Materials & Design, 192, 108699 (2020). 

Sumit Suresh, Seok-Woo Lee, Mark Aindow, Harold D Brody, Victor K Champagne, “Mesoscale evolution of jet initiation behavior and microstructure evolution during cold spray single particle impact,” Acta Materialia, 182, 197-206 (2020).

Hetal D. Patel, Seok-Woo Lee, “Spherical indentation on tungsten single crystal: transition from source-controlled plasticity to bulk plasticity,” Scripta Materialia, 175, 16-19 (2020).

Tyler J. Flanagan, Oleg Kovalenko, Eugen Rabkin, Seok-Woo Lee, “The effect of defects on strength of gold microparticles,” Scripta Materialia, 171, 83-86 (2019).

Tyler J. Flanagan, Benjamin Bedard, Alex Ernst, Avinash M. Dongare, Seok-Woo Lee, Harold D. Brody, Victor K. Champagne Jr, Mark Aindow, “Mechanical properties of supersonic-impacted Al6061 microparticles,” Scripta Materialia, 171, 52-56 (2019).

Gyuho Song, Vladislav Borisov, William R. Meier, Mingyu Xu, Keith J. Dusoe, John T. Sypek, Roser Valenti, Paul C. Canfield, Seok-Woo Lee, “Ultrahigh elastically compressible and strain-engineerable intermetallic compounds under uni-axial mechanical loading,” APL Materials, 7, 061104 (2019).

Gyuho Song, Seok-Woo Lee, “Effect of temperature on surface-controlled dislocation multiplication in body-centered-cubic metal micropillars,” Computational Materials Science, 168, 172-179 (2019).

Benjamin Bedard, Alex Ernst, Tyler J. Flanagan, Avinash M. Dongare, Seok-Woo Lee, Harold D. Brody, Victor K. Champagne Jr, Mark Aindow, “Microstructure and micromechanical response in gas-atomized Al6061 alloy powder and cold-sprayed splats,” Journal of Thermal Spray Technology, 27, 1563-1578 (2018).

Ian N. Bakst, Keith J. Dusoe, Gil Drachuk, James R. Neilson, Paul C. Canfield, Seok-Woo Lee, Christopher R. Weinberger, “Effects of point defects on the mechanical response of LaRu2P2,” Acta Materialia, 160, 224-234 (2018).

Ian N. Bakst, Hang Yu, Mohammadreza Bahadori, Haibo Yu, Seok-Woo Lee, Mark Aindow, Christopher R. Weinberger, “Insights into the plasticity of Ag₃Sn from Density Functional Theory,” International Journal of Plasticity, 110, 57-73 (2018).

Sumit Suresh, Seok-Woo Lee, Mark Aindow, Harold Brody, Victor R. Champagne, Avinash M. Dongare, “Unraveling the mesoscale evolution of microstructure during supersonic in aluminum powder particles,” Scientific Report, 8, 10075 (2018).

Ian N. Bakst, John T. Sypek, Seok-Woo Lee, James R. Neilson, Christopher R. Weinberger, “Modeling pseudo-elastic behavior in small-scale ThCr₂Si₂-type crystals,” Computational Materials Science, 150, 86-95 (2018).

Keara Frawley, Ian Bakst, John T. Sypek, Sriram Vijayan, Christopher R. Weinberger, Paul C. Canfield, Mark Aindow, Seok-Woo Lee, “A nanoindentation study on plastic deformation and fracture behaviors of [0 0 1] CaFe₂As₂ intermetallic compound,” JOM, 70, 1074-1080 (2018) – featured in journal cover