Leadership Team

Yogesh K. Vohra, PhD

Professor Department of Physics, Associate Dean, College of Arts & Sciences

The University of Alabama at Birmingham

Dr. Yogesh Vohra (UAB) serves as a PI for this DOE NNSA Center of Excellence. Dr. Vohra is a Chartered Physicist and Fellow of the Institute of Physics, United Kingdom. Dr. Vohra’s research expertise is in the properties of materials under extreme conditions of pressures and temperatures, x-ray and optical characterization of materials, synthetic diamond growth and applications, and plasma synthesis and surface modifications of materials. Dr. Vohra has worked extensively on phase transformations and equation of state measurements on rare earths, actinide metals and alloys, and high-entropy materials to multi-megabar pressures in collaboration with DOE NNSA Labs. Vohra has authored over 390 peer-reviewed publications in physics and materials science and has been awarded six patents.

Leora Dresselhaus-Marais, PhD

Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and of SLAC in Photon Science (Term)

Stanford University

Leora is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Materials Science & Engineering, with a courtesy appointment in Mechanical Engineering, and a term appointment in Photon Science at the SLAC National Accelerator Lab. Leora was also appointed as a Precourt Center Fellow and a Gabilan Fellow at Stanford University, and was selected for a Young Investigator Research Program (YIP) Award from the AFOSR in 2023. Before coming to Stanford, Leora was a Lawrence Fellow in the Physics Division of the Physics and Life Sciences Directorate at Lawrence Livermore National Labs, where she developed the tools to study time-resolved defect dynamics in bulk materials — giving new insights into long-standing problems in materials science. Leora did her PhD in Physical Chemistry with Prof. Keith Nelson at MIT, where she demonstrated how shock waves initiate chemistry in RDX that couples to deformations in unique ways that enhance the sensitivity. Leora did her BA and MSc in Chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania.

Wen Chen, PhD

Associate Professor
Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering

Biography

Dr. Wen Chen is an Associate Professor of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Southern California (USC). He obtained his Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science from Yale University in 2016. After his Ph.D., he worked as a postdoctoral research scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where he studied a variety of additive manufacturing techniques including projection stereolithograohy, direct ink writing, laser powder-bed fusion, and laser-directed energy deposition. Prior to joining USC in 2025, he was an Associate Professor in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Dr. Chen’s current research interests include additive manufacturing (3D printing), architected materials, physical and mechanical metallurgy. He has served as the additive manufacturing symposium chair in 2023 MRS Fall meeting. Dr. Chen has published 5 US patents and more than 100 publications in referred journals such as Nature, Nature Materials, Nature Communications, Physical Review Letters, Science Advances, Materials Today, Acta Materialia, etc. He has also served as the Associate Editor for multiple journals including Materials Futures and Scientific Reports.

Jae-Hwang Lee, PhD

Associate Professor
Mechanical and Industrial Engineering

University of Massachusetts Amherst

Jae-Hwang Lee is an associate professor of the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at UMass Amherst since 2014. Prior to UMass, he was a research scientist in the Materials Science and NanoEngineering department at Rice and the Richard Smalley Institute for three years. He received his Ph.D. in Condensed Matter Physics at Iowa State University in 2006 for his research on 3D woodpile photonic crystals with emphasis on thermophotovoltaic applications. As a postdoctoral researcher, he joined the Thomas group at MIT in 2007 and studied nonlinear/extreme mechanical behavior of nano-structured materials.

Vijaya Rangari, PhD

Professor of Materials Science and Engineering
Interim Associate VP, Research & Sponsored Programs

Tuskegee University

Dr. Vijaya K Rangari is a professor at Tuskegee University’s Materials Science and Engineering department, Rangri received his Ph.D in Polymer Chemistry from Osmania University, India and a postdoctoral experience at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore India and Bar-Ilan University, Israel.

Penghui Cao, PhD

Assistant Professor
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

University of California Irvine

Dr. Penghui Cao, serving as an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of California Irvine, also holds a joint appointment in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. Leading the Extreme Mechanics and Materials group at UCI, his research primarily focuses on exploring material behavior under extreme conditions. This exploration is facilitated by developing advanced algorithms for simulations, which overcome the constraints of conventional atomistic models. Through the integration of computational and experimental methodologies, the research aims to elucidate the evolution of defects and strain particularly in complex materials.