Sherry Xian Chen

Biography

I received my Bachelor degree in Materials Science and Engineering from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, at Wuhan, China in 2005. Then I switched my major and studied Solid Mechanics at the department of Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, United States. I got both my MS (2011) and PhD (2013) degrees there and continued one year postdoctoral research in developing highly reversible functional materials based on the geometrically nonlinear elasticity theory for solid-solid phase transformation. In 2014, I won the ALS fellowship awarded by the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and started to work on advanced structural characterization utilized with theories and algrothms of crystalline solids for phase-transforming materials at Beamline 12.3.2 Laue Microdiffraction at Advanced Light Source division. My main research interests are the development of advanced functional materials based on the Cofactor Conditions (that is the strongest conditions of compatibility for formation of microstructure, Chen et al, JMPS, 2013). Integrating the advanced structural determination techniques at Synchrotron source with the guidance of the theory, I would like to establish an automated materials manufacturing chain aimed at the discovery of highly reversible and ultra-low fatigue functional materials with emerging application in medical, microelectronic and aerospace industries.

Research Interest

Deformation and microstructure in structural phase transformation; crystalline mechanics and crystallography; advanced structural characterization (XRD, SEM/EBSD, TEM); shape memory alloys; multiferroic phase transformation.