Gao Receives LAMDA Research Award

Tong GaoOctober 16, 2023

BATON ROUGE, LA – Tong Gao, a postdoctoral associate in the LSU Cain Department of Chemical Engineering, recently received a Louisiana Materials Design Alliance, or LAMDA, Seed Track 1C Postdoctoral Research Award.

The LAMDA research program represents “a convergence of machine learning, experimental and computational materials science and engineering, and additive manufacturing.” The organization’s vision is to propel Louisiana to “a nationally competitive position in the field of machine language-guided materials design for additive manufacturing.”

Gao joined LSU in March of this year and is a member of LSU Chemical Engineering Assistant Professor Yaxin An’s research group. Prior to joining the university, Gao was at Michigan Technological University, where she earned her PhD in Applied Physics. Her research area of interest centers around the world of soft materials, specifically utilizing molecular modeling and machine-learning methods to understand, analyze, and design new soft materials, including shape-memory polymers, proteins, RNAs, and polyelectrolytes.

“The LAMDA award provides invaluable financial support that can be allocated towards acquiring computational resources, covering data storage costs, facilitating the publication of research findings, as well as enabling my participation in conferences,” Gao said. “With the support of this funding, I can propel my research forward, specifically focusing on the domain of machine-learning-guided materials design for additive manufacturing. This entails the development of thermoset shape memory polymers with enhanced properties and applications. I am enthusiastic about the potential impact of this research, as it is promising to make significant contributions to the field of materials science and engineering.”

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