Areas of Research at Mellon College of Science
Sustainability Science
CMU research scientists are developing smart solutions for urgent sustainability issues. Their work advances our understanding of changes in the environment and builds cleaner technologies that safeguard life on Earth.
Stefan Bernhard
Focus areas: Research in luminescent materials, solar fuels, organic photovoltaics, organic light-emitting devices, circular polarized luminescence
Terrence Collins
Focus areas: Green chemistry, green oxidation catalysis in water, inorganic chemistry, biomimetic chemistry of peroxidase enzymes, mechanisms of oxidation catalysis, novel approaches to water purification
Neil Donahue
Focus areas: Atmospheric chemistry, organic aerosol, kinetics, reaction dynamics, radical-molecule reactivity, ozonolysis, mass spectrometry
Hyung Kim
Focus areas: Theoretical and computational chemistry, equilibrium and nonequilibrium statistical mechanics, computer simulations, chemical reactions and spectroscopy in solution, green solvents, supercapacitors, multi-domain proteins
Ryan Sullivan
Focus areas: Atmospheric chemistry, aerosol instrumentation, single-particle analysis, mass spectrometry, laser spectroscopy, heterogeneous chemistry, combustion, particle hygroscopicity, cloud nucleation, aerosol-cloud-climate interactions
Computational Finance
Our faculty advance the math behind modern finance to model market uncertainty and optimize decisions with AI engineering. Their leading-edge work builds more resilient systems that help industries manage risk and plan for the future.
Dmitry Kramkov
Focus areas: Mathematical Finance and Theory of Stochastic Processes with equilibrium-based models
Martin Larsson
Focus areas: Mathematical Finance and related topics in stochastic analysis and probability
Mykhaylo Shkolnikov
Focus areas: Mathematical Finance, mathematical physics, and neuroscience using tools from stochastic analysis and PDE/SPDE
Cosmology & Astronomy
MCS researchers are solving the complex puzzles of the Universe — investigating dark matter, building novel telescopes and studying particles from the Big Bang to deepen our understanding of space, time and the fundamental forces that govern them.
John Alison
Focus areas: Theory of fundamental particles and their interactions
Rupert Croft
Focus areas: Cosmology, the Big Bang, inflation, dark matter
Tiziana Di Matteo
Focus areas: Black holes, high-energy astrophysics, cosmology
Tina Kahniashvili
Focus areas: High-quality cosmological data, observations of the cosmic microwave background, large-scale structure distribution, gravitational lensing and other observational data supporting a consistent "standard" model of the Universe
Rachel Mandelbaum
Focus areas: Observational cosmology and galaxy studies, weak gravitational lensing and other analysis techniques
Diana Parno
Focus areas: Physics of the neutrino, a fundamental particle that is generated in particle decays and nuclear reactions, which, in the Standard Model of particle physics, interacts only via the weak force
Manfred Paulini
Focus areas: Particle physics and cosmology
Riccardo Penco
Focus areas: Physical systems, cosmology, astrophysics, condensed matter
Jeffrey Peterson
Focus areas: Designing and building novel radio telescopes to study dark energy
Ira Rothstein
Focus areas: Elementary particle physics, gravity wave physics, astrophysics/cosmology and QCD
Hy Trac
Focus areas: Computational and theoretical cosmology, astrophysics
Matthew Walker
Focus areas: Astrophysical properties of dark matter
Life Sciences Breakthroughs
Breakthroughs in the life sciences at MCS are driving discoveries in cancer, neurodegeneration, genetic disorders and other diseases. Expert faculty are reprogramming cells, decoding genetic variations and applying chemistry and computation to transform medicine and biotechnology.
Dannie Durand
Focus areas: Computational analysis of molecular sequence data in genetics
Charles Ettensohn
Focus areas: Genetic encoding, early patterning, morphogenesis and development
N. Luisa Hiller
Focus areas: Applying bacterial infections, comparative genomics, bioinformatics and phylogenetics to banked bacterial isolates from clinical infections
Frederick Lanni
Focus areas: Mechanical activities of non-muscle cells drive many processes in embryonic development, tissue maintenance and healing, immune cell migration and function, neuronal circuit formation and progression of certain diseases
Tina Lee
Focus areas: The structure and function relationship of the endoplasmic reticulum and how the structure of the organelle might be modified to respond to changes in cell physiology
Adam Linstedt
Focus areas: Molecular mechanisms that establish and maintain the membrane-bounded subcellular compartments of the secretory and endocytic pathways
Brooke McCartney
Focus areas: Cancer cell research, tumor suppression, gene mutation
Joel McManus
Focus areas: Variation in gene expression and how it contributes to phenotypic diversity and disease
Jonathan Minden
Focus areas: Gene and cellular mutation and pattern formation in environmental changes and proteomics
Gordon Rule
Focus areas: Inter-molecular interactions in biological systems, enzyme-substrate interactions, protein-lipid interactions, antibody-antigen interactions, RNA structure, protein-nucleic acid interactions
Russell Schwartz
Focus areas: Analysis of genetic variations, with specific application to inference of population subgroups and phylogenetics
John Woolford
Focus areas: Assembly of ribosomes in eukaryotes, identify and characterize proteins necessary for the biogenesis of ribosomes
Huaiying Zhang
Focus areas: Investigate functional significance of phase transition in cells, engineer synthetic organelles and control phase transition for cancer therapy
Yongxin (Leon) Zhao
Focus areas: Mapping structural and molecular properties of complex biological systems
Subha Das
Focus areas: Organic synthesis, nucleic acids chemistry, RNA biochemistry, RNA-protein recognition, nanotechnology
Yisong (Alex) Guo
Focus areas: Spectroscopy, bioinorganic chemistry, Mössbauer and EPR spectroscopy, synchrotron radiation techniques, nuclear resonance vibrational spectroscopy (NRVS), synchrotron Mössbauer, metalloproteins, enzyme mechanisms, transition metal complexes, electronic structures, density functional theory
Michael Hendrich
Focus areas: Spectroscopy, biophysical chemistry, enzymatic mechanisms, bioinorganic chemistry, metalloenzymes
Anna Kietrys
Focus areas: Chemical biology, RNA structure and function, epitranscriptomics, RNA signaling, aging and neurodegeneration
Maria Kurnikova
Focus areas: Theory, computational chemistry, biophysical, molecular modeling, continuum electrostatics, drift-diffusion models, ion channels, membrane receptors, signal transduction, membrane protein structure-function relations, flexibility and rigidity in protein dynamics
Danith Ly
Focus areas: Bioorganic chemistry, chemical biology, gene regulation, cellular delivery, protein engineering, molecular self-assembly
Markus Deserno
Focus areas: Theoretical and computational techniques regarding lipid membranes, proteins, viruses or DNA
Frank Heinrich
Focus areas: Disease-relevant proteins, peptides and small molecules at interfaces and, in particular, interacting with lipid membranes
Quantum Information
Quantum science research at MCS explores particle behavior, new materials and the mysterious rules that govern matter at the smallest scales. Our expert faculty in quantum materials and particle physics are laying the groundwork for breakthroughs in computing, energy and next-generation technologies.
Roy Briere
Focus areas: High-energy particle physics, the study of the decays and other properties of the different types of quarks
Randall Feenstra
Focus areas: Structural and electronic properties of semiconductor materials and devices
Benjamin Hunt
Focus areas: Condensed-matter physics, electrons’ behavior under extreme conditions in ultra-low temperatures and high magnetic fields
Jyoti Katoch
Focus areas: Electronic, optical and spin-dependent properties of novel quantum materials like two-dimensional materials and their devices
Curtis Meyer
Focus areas: Protons and neutrons, quarks and gluons, quantum chromodynamics
Colin Morningstar
Focus areas: Nonperturbative phenomena in quantum field theories, with particular emphasis on the study of hadron formation and confinement in quantum chromodynamics, using computer simulations of quarks and gluons
Jeffrey Peterson
Focus areas: Designing and building novel radio telescopes to study dark energy
Simranjeet Singh
Focus areas: Magnetism, spin transport and spin dynamics in low-dimensional condensed matter systems
Materials of the Future
MCS researchers are advancing materials science through breakthroughs in nanomaterials, polymers and computational materials discovery. Our work in sustainable materials, machine learning for materials design and green chemistry is reshaping energy storage, biomedicine and next-generation electronics.
Bruce Armitage
Focus areas: Bioorganic chemistry, fluorescent dyes, DNA nanotechnology, molecular evolution, peptide nucleic acids, molecular recognition of DNA/RNA, G quadruplexes
Mark Bier
Focus areas: Biophysical chemistry, environmental chemistry, analytical chemistry, virus particles, nanoparticles, heavy ion mass spectrometry, membrane inlet mass spectrometry for environmental water analysis
Emile Bominaar
Focus areas: Electronic structure; spin; transition-metal complexes; metal clusters; theory; computational; density functional theory; exchange interactions; hyperfine interactions; Mössbauer spectroscopy; magneto optical spectroscopy; magneto chemistry; bioinorganic chemistry
Roberto Gil
Focus areas: Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, residual dipolar couplings, residual chemical shift anisotropy, anisotropic polymer gels, natural products, characterization of nucleic acids, peptides, synthetic polymers, small molecules in general
Olexandr Isayev
Focus areas: Theoretical and computational chemistry, machine learning, cheminformatics, drug discovery, computer-aided molecular design, materials informatics
Rongchao Jin
Focus areas: Nanoscience, nanoparticles, synthesis, catalysis, optics
Tomasz Kowalewski
Focus areas: Physical chemistry, atomic force microscopy, proximal probe techniques, organic electronics, nano-structured materials, nanographene, self-assembly of organic materials, characterization of nanostructures, device fabrication and characterization
Krzysztof Matyjaszewski
Focus areas: Polymer synthesis, controlled/living polymerization, macromolecular engineering, bio-related polymers, organic/inorganic hybrids, catalysis, green chemistry
Kevin Noonan
Focus areas: Polymer chemistry, organometallics, homogeneous catalysis, organophosphorus chemistry
Linda Peteanu
Focus areas: Photophysics, laser spectroscopy, microscopy, Stark spectroscopy, conjugated materials, nucleic acids, fluorescent labels, plasmonics
Stefanie Sydlik
Focus areas: Polymer science, materials chemistry, biomaterials, electronic materials
Newell Washburn
Focus areas: Materials chemistry, biomaterials, green chemistry, machine learning
David Yaron
Focus areas: Theory, computational, electronic structure theory, machine learning, materials theory, photophysics, spectroscopy
Sara Majetich
Focus areas: Magnetic nanoparticles that have very uniform sizes, their fundamental behavior and possible applications in data storage media, permanent magnets and biomedicine
Michael Widom
Focus areas: Theoretical modeling of novel materials in condensed matter and biological physics settings, methods of statistical mechanics, quantum mechanics and computer simulation used to investigate structure, stability and properties of these materials
Irene Fonseca
Focus areas: Mathematical study of shape memory alloys, ferroelectric, magnetic materials, composites, thin structures, phase transitions in fluids and solids and the mathematical analysis of image segmentation, denoising, detexturing and recolorization in computer vision
Giovanni Leoni
Focus areas: Variational problems involving material defects, such as dislocations; the epitaxial growth of a thin film over a crystalline substrate; phase field models for anisotropic crystalline energies; phase transitions problems; water waves
Neuroscience
MCS neuroscience research is decoding how neural circuits drive behavior, movement and decision-making. Their work reveals how experience, injury and disease reshape the brain, which is advancing treatments for conditions like Parkinson’s disease, dystonia and stroke.
Alison Barth
Focus areas: Understanding how experience assembles and alters the properties of neural circuits in the cerebral cortex in both normal and disease states
Aryn Gittis
Focus areas: Neural circuits in the basal ganglia in movement disorders such as Parkinson’s disease and dystonia
Kate Hong
Focus areas: Determine how cortical and subcortical activity cooperate to mediate sensory-motor transformations in parallel, providing a foundation for understanding behavioral deficits and recovery mechanisms associated with cortical injury
Eric Yttri
Focus areas: Establish how neural circuits lead to action selection decisions in impairments like stroke and Parkinson's disease
Mathematical Foundations of Artificial Intelligence
MCS researchers are building the mathematical frameworks that power AI — advancing combinatorics, probability, logic and analysis to create stronger algorithms, optimize computation and tackle high-dimensional problems in data science and machine learning.
Tom Bohman
Focus areas: Extremal and probabilistic combinatorics and discrete mathematical problems
Boris Bukh
Focus areas: Combinatorial objects
Clinton Conley
Focus areas: Descriptive set theory, equivalence relations arising from measurable group actions or measurable graphs
James Cummings
Focus areas: Combinatorial objects, structure theory of linear orderings and posets, rainbow Ramsey theory, strong forcing axioms, new forcing techniques for obtaining consistency results in singular cardinal combinatorics
Florian Frick
Focus areas: Geometric-topological methods, intersection combinatorics of convex hulls in Euclidean space, inscribing geometric shapes into curves, partitioning a point set by hyperplanes
Alan Frieze
Focus areas: Probabilistic Combinatorics and its application to Theoretical Computer Science and Operations Research
Rami Grossberg
Focus areas: Model theory of mathematical logic, related combinatorial, set-theoretic problems and applications to algebra
Gautam Iyer
Focus areas: Studies partial differential equations arising in applied mathematics
David Kinderlehrer
Focus areas: Applied mathematics and analysis of differential equations in materials, cell biology, mechanisms of intracellular transport and models of ion transport
Po-Shen Loh
Focus areas: Combinatorics, probability, computer science
Wesley Pegden
Focus areas: Probabilistic combinatorics, combinatorial game theory, graph theory, discrete geometry
Agoston Pisztora
Focus areas: Probabilistic analysis of random fields, certain disordered systems and phase transitions
Ernest Schimmerling
Focus areas: Set theory, hierarchy of large cardinal axioms
Dejan Slepčev
Focus areas: Applied analysis, partial differential equations, calculus of variations, optimal transportation, as well as tools of probability, statistics, functional analysis and scientific computation to address applied problems
Richard Statman
Focus areas: Mathematical logic, proof theory and the theory of computation, theory of programming languages (computer science), theory of functional programming, lambda calculus/combinatory logic
Tomasz Tkocz
Focus areas: Analysis, probability and convex geometry, with an emphasis on high-dimensional phenomena, inequalities in information theory
Noel Walkington
Focus areas: The development and analysis of numerical algorithms required for the approximation of partial differential equations
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