Faculty
We innovate across disciplines and industries in order to develop advanced technologies for aerospace, energy, biomedical, nuclear, environmental, defense and advanced manufacturing applications.
Leadership
Leadership
Olivia A. Graeve
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, UC San Diego
Director, CaliBaja Center for Resilient Materials & Systems ,
Nanomaterials manufacturing; fundamental principles of materials processing with special focus in aerospace materials (i.e., ultra-high temperature materials) and electromagnetic materials for sensors and energy applications; materials processing using techniques such as combustion synthesis, colloidal techniques, spark plasma sintering, and high-energy milling operations; design of amorphous metal materials.
Rubén Ortiz-Torres
Visual Arts, UC San Diego
Co-Director, CaliBaja Center for Resilient Materials & Systems,
Mexican postmodernism; issues of globalization central to the current 'New World Order' and the various, sometimes conflicted, responses to this newest form of Euro-American dominance.
Rafael Vazquez-Duhalt
Centro de Nanociencias y Nanotecnología, CNyN-UNAM
Co-Director, CaliBaja Center for Resilient Materials & Systems ,
Environmental biotechnology, enzymatic transformation of pollutants and recalcitrant compounds, bionanotechnology, chemical modification of enzymes for harsh and non-conventional environments.
New Materials and Devices
New Materials and Devices
Prabhakar R. Bandaru
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Control of thermal energy and fluid flow at the nanoscale, applications that include information processing and storage and sensors.
Julio T. Barreiro Guerrero
Physics
Experimental atomic and optical physics, ultra-cold atoms, degenerate quantum gases, quantum information and simulations.
Shengqiang Cai
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Formulation and modeling of large deformation of soft materials. Mechanical instabilities, damage and fracture in soft materials such as hydrogels and electroactive polymers.
Robert E. Continetti
Chemistry and Biochemistry
Experimental studies of transient species in the gas phase, with interests ranging from isolated small radicals and ions to mass-selected nanoparticles and aerosols; three-dimensional imaging techniques and time-of-flight and charge detection mass spectrometric techniques.
Javier E. Garay
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Design and manufacturing of new materials with novel and advanced properties, including nanomaterials, composites and intermetallics.
Benjamin Grinstein
Physics
Weak sub-atomic interactions, and, in particular, decays of "strange," "charm" and "bottom" quarks.
Jian Luo
NanoEngineering
Research on interfaces in metals and ceramics, advanced materials for energy-related applications, high-entropy ceramics, alloys and ceramics for applications at high temperatures and in extreme environments, and flash sintering and other innovative ceramic fabrication and processing methods, amongst other areas of structural and functional materials.
Marc A. Meyers
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Ultrafine grained and nanocrystalline metals for high strength and controlled bioresorption applications in the biomedical field.
Frank E. Talke
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Wear of diamond-like carbon under extreme conditions of load and speed; behavior of SiN in bio-medical devices (glaucoma sensor); lubricant transfer and hydrocarbon contamination in magnetic hard disk drives.
George R. Tynan
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Development of novel nanoengineered materials for use in extreme environments of nuclear fusion reactors.
Oscar Vazquez
NanoEngineering
Novel photovoltaic devices based on nanomaterials, scanning probe analysis of proteins, efficient nanopatterning methods, plasmonic biosensors.
Elizabeth Villa
Chemistry and Biochemistry
Macromolecular imaging using transmission electron microscopy at cryogenic temperature. Molecular modeling integrating data from various sources. Multiscale simulations of biomolecules.
Sheng Xu
NanoEngineering
Research includes developing soft wearable electronics for health monitoring and human-machine interfaces.
Joel Yuen-Zhou
Chemistry and Biochemistry
Theoretical descriptions of novel quantum and semi-classical phenomena at the interface of chemical, condensed matter, and materials physics.
Medicine and Environment
Medicine and Environment
M. Octavio Aburto-Oropeza
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Marine ecology, conservation biology, fisheries ecology, marine reserves and long-term marine life monitoring programs.
Vicki H. Grassian
Chemistry and Biochemistry
NanoEngineering
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Surface chemistry and transformations of metal-based nanomaterials in different biological and environmental milieu.
Francisco J. Villarreal
Medicine
Cardiac structure and function as well as therapeutic strategies to protect tissues and organs from diseases that adversely impact cellular bioenergetics.
Social Sciences, Arts and Culture
Social Sciences, Arts and Culture
Max Parra
Literature
Literature of Mexico and the U.S.-Mexico border region. Narratives of border conflict and border integration in the San Diego-Tijuana region.
Isabel Trevino
Economics
Economic modeling and experiments on strategic interactions under incomplete and asymmetric information with applications to macroeconomics and finance; behavioral economics.
International Collaborators
International Collaborators
Rubén D. Cadena-Nava
Centro de Nanociencias y Nanotecnología – Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México(CNyN-UNAM)
Virus-like particles (VLPs) as nanovehicles for biomedical applications, bionanotechnology, chemical functionalization of VLPs for tissue targeting.
Santiago Camacho López
Centro de Investigación Científica y de Educación Superior de Ensenada (CICESE)
Processing of materials using ultrashort pulse laser irradiation.
Ma. de la Paz Cruz Jáuregui
Centro de Nanociencias y Nanotecnología - Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Thin films and nanomaterials of piezo-ferroelectrics and multiferroics for sensors, actuators and information storage. Solar cells based on photovoltaic perovskites. Micro Ti-TiO2 scaffolds.
Victoria Díaz Castañeda
Centro de Investigación Científica y de Educación Superior de Ensenada (CICESE)
Effects of ocean acidification on marine organisms, macrofauna and use of species as environmental indicators, environmental monitoring.
J. Noé Díaz de Léon Hernández
Centro de Nanociencias y Nanotecnología – Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (CNyN-UNAM)
Design of catalytic nanomaterials and nanostructures for environmental applications. Production of ultra-clean fuels via hydrodesulfurization and hydrodenitrogenation catalysts. Use of CO2 for obtaining hydrocarbons and mitigating the greenhouse effect through hydrogenation and derived reactions as the water-gas shift.
Manuel Herrera Zaldivar
Centro de Nanociencias y Nanotecnología – Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (CNyN-UNAM)
Microscopy techniques: Scanning electron microscopy (cathodoluminescence), transmission electron microscopy, scanning tunneling microscopy, atomic force microscopy.
Alejandro Huerta-Saquero
Centro de Nanociencias y Nanotecnología – Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (CNyN-UNAM)
Nanotoxicology, effect of nanoparticles and nanostructured materials on microbial physiology, bionanotechnology.
Karla O. Juarez-Moreno
Centro de Nanociencias y Nanotecnología – Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (CNyN-UNAM)
Nanotoxicology studies on animal cells: Aiming to understand and correlate the responses of cells subjected to acute and chronic exposures of nanomaterials with their physicochemical properties.
Asunción Lago Lestón
Centro de Investigación Científica y de Educación Superior de Ensenada (CICESE)
Metagenomes and metatranscriptomes of microorganisms in extreme environments for biomedical technologies. Characterization of metagenomes of organisms of deep water and sediments of the Gulf of Mexico.
Mercedes T. Oropeza-Guzman
Tecnológico Nacional de México - Instituto Tecnológico de Tijuana
Electrochemistry and Process Engineering. Interfacial physicochemistry for materials characterization under electrical stress. Design of nanocomposites and functional graded materials for biomedical and environmental applications.
M. del Pilar Sánchez Saavedra
Centro de Investigación Científica y de Educación Superior de Ensenada (CICESE)
Extreme environmental factors on the physiology of aquatic organisms (algae and mollusks) and effects on their exostructures/exoskeletons. Production of metabolites from microalgae cultures to uses in
biotechnology, pharmacology, and aquaculture.
Monica Tentori
Centro de Investigación Científica y de Educación Superior de Ensenada (CICESE)
Human-computer interaction, ubiquitous and pervasive computing, assistive and educational technologies, computer-supported cooperative work and medical informatics.
Roberto Vázquez Meza
Instituto de Astronomía – Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Effects of extreme environments (temperature, pressure, pH, radiation) on pollen, fungi, and other microorganisms.