Assistant Research Professors

Mo-Rigen He (Mo)

Mo is an electron microscopist and his research has been focusing on the application of comprehensive TEM techniques to understand the structural and mechanical behaviors of a variety of advanced materials. Mo earned his PhD degree from Tsinghua University, China in 2011 with studies of ZnO nanowires. He had worked as postdoctoral researcher at the University of Pennsylvania on metallic nanowires and thin films, and at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on materials degradation in nuclear environments. Mo joined JHU in 2019 as an assistant research professor at DME and HEMI. His current research interests include the microstructure and deformation in additively manufactured alloys, nanotwinned thin films, and ultrahard ceramics. He is also teaching graduate courses on the theory and practice of SEM.

Email: [email protected]


Syed Idrees Afzal Jalali (Ali)

Ali did his post-doctorate on strain partitioning using micro-scale DIC with Prof. D. Banerjee at IISc Bangalore and another post-doctorate on flash sintering with Prof.  R. Raj at CU Boulder. Ali completed his Ph.D. in materials engg. from IISc in 2020. His Ph.D. thesis was on “evaluation of power-law creep in bending” under the supervision of Prof. V. Jayaram and Prof. P. Kumar. He also holds a master’s from IIT Roorkee, and bachelor’s from NIT Srinagar, India. He is currently working as assistant research professor at JHU alongside Prof. K. Hemker on developing ultra-high temperature testing capabilities and implementing DIC therein for testing refractory alloys.

Email: [email protected]