Pierson Graduate Seminar Schedule

Academic Year 2025-2026

Fall 2025

 

Week

Date

Speaker

Seminar Topic

Host

1

8/26

Dr. Jiangyu Li

Head and Chair Professor

Department of Materials and Science and Engineering

Southern University of Science and Technology

Engineering Electromechanical Coupling for Active Materials, Structures, and Devices

Dr. Jeffrey Shield

 

2

 

9/1

(Mon.)

Labor Day (Student and Staff Holiday – UNL offices closed)

9/2

MME GSAC

Introduction to department and class expectations.

Introduction to the Graduate Student Advisory Committee

Attendance is mandatory for all students in the MEAM-MS, MEAM-PHD programs, and all students whose advisor is a MME faculty member. This includes PHD-Materials Engineering students and PHD-BIOE students who are advised by MME faculty.

3

9/9

Dr. Jae Sung Park

Associate Professor

Mechanical & Materials Engineering

University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Professional Development Series

What is Research?

 

4

9/16

Dr. Jared Butler

Assistant Professor

Penn State University 

From Surgery to Space: Folding, Flexures, and Fabrication in the Additive Age

Dr. Carl Nelson

5

9/23

Dr. Jun Sheng

Assistant Professor

University of California, Riverside 

Multiscale Flexible and Soft Robots for Challenging Biomedical Operations

Dr. Eric Markvicka

6

9/30

Dr. Devahdhanush VS

Assistant Professor

Mechanical & Materials Engineering

University of Nebraska-Lincoln

 

Dr. Jae Sung Park

7

10/7

Dr. Greg Mckenna

Research Professor

Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

NC State University

Composites, rubber, glasses and DNA: 50+ years of interrogating materials physics with thermal analysis and viscoelastic measurements

Dr. Mehrdad Negahban

8

10/14

Dr. Beomjin Kwon

Associate Professor

Arizona State University

Thermo-Fluid Research with AI

Dr. Jae Sung Park

9

October 20 (Monday) – 21 (Tuesday) = Fall Semester Break (Student Holiday – UNL offices open). 

No seminars are to be scheduled for October 22.

10

10/28

Dr. Janghoon Ock

Assistant Professor

Chemical and Bimolecular Engineering

University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Computational catalysis/materials discovery with large language model and multimodal learning

Dr. Jae Sung Park

11

11/4

NO SEMINAR

12

11/11

Dr. Abdelghani Laraoui

Associate Professor

University of Nebraska-Lincoln

 

Dr. Jae Sung Park

13

11/18

Dr. Solomon Adera

Assistant Professor

Mechanical Engineering

University of Michigan

 

Dr. George Gogos

 

14

Student Thanksgiving Holiday is Wednesday, November 27 – Friday, November 29, 2023. 

11/25

NO SEMINAR  

15

12/2

Two graduate students in MME

 

 

The last week of classes is December 8 – 13 (Monday – Saturday), 2025.

No seminars will be scheduled after December 2, 2025. 

16

12/9

NO SEMINAR

 

 

Fall Semester Final Examinations are Monday December 15 – Friday December 19, 2025

Fall Semester Graduate Commencement and Doctoral Hooding is Friday December 19, 2025

Fall Semester Undergraduate Commencement is Saturday December 20, 2025

 

Spring 2026

Week

Date

Speaker (title, address, email, phone, fax, web)

Seminar Topic

Co-Sponsor

1

1/13

NO SEMINAR

2

1/19

Martin Luther King Day (Student and Staff Holiday – UNL offices closed)

1/20TBA  

3

1/27

TBA

 

 

4

2/3

TBA

 

 

National Engineer’s Week is scheduled from Sunday February 16 through Saturday February 22, 2025. 

The UNL CoE 2025 E-Week will likely be scheduled to coordinate with the national event.

5

2/10

TBA

 

 

6

2/17

TBA

 

 

7

2/24

TBA

 

 

 

8

 

3/3

NO SEMINAR

9

3/10

Student Spring 2025 Vacation is Sunday, March 15 through Sunday, March 22.

No seminars are to be scheduled during this week. UNL Offices are Open.

10

3/17

TBA

 

 

11

3/24

TBA

 

 

12

3/31

TBA

 

 

13

4/7

TBA

 

 

14

4/14

TBA

 

 

15

4/21

TBA

 

 

16

4/28

GRAs

 

 

The last week of classes is April 26 – May 2 (Sunday – Saturday), 2026.

No seminars will be scheduled after April 28, 2026.

Spring Semester Final Exams May 4 – May 8, 2026 (Monday – Friday)

Spring Semester Graduate Commencement and Doctoral Hooding is Friday, May 8, 2026.

Spring Semester Undergraduate Commencement is Saturday, May 9, 2026.

 

Seminar Coordinator