Webinar Description
Hosted by: ACerS Washington DC/Maryland/Virginia Section
Friday, August 29, 2025; 12p.m. – 1p.m. Eastern US time
Sponsored by the ACerS Washington DC/Maryland/Virginia Section, the August webinar will feature one speaker: From Complexity to Capability: Exploring the Links Between Structure and Function in High-Entropy Oxides
DESCRIPTION
From Complexity to Capability: Exploring the Links Between Structure and Function in High-Entropy Oxides
The ability to control disorder at the atomic scale is opening new frontiers in materials design. High-entropy oxides (HEOs) represent a class of materials in which high chemical complexity can stabilize single-phase structures and influence properties in ways not typically observed in simpler oxides. Yet, the structural variables that control these behaviors remain poorly defined. This presentation will highlight RostLab’s efforts to determine how local coordination environments, cation site occupancies, and defect landscapes govern the properties of HEOs. Using advanced synthesis, synchrotron-based spectroscopy, and complementary modeling, we reveal how compositional complexity drives cation redistribution, alters electronic structure, and influences phase evolution. These insights form the basis for designing HEOs with targeted magnetic, dielectric, and thermal responses, illustrating that disorder is not a limitation to be reduced, but a tool to be leveraged.
BIOGRAPHIES
Dr. Christina Rost, Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Virginia Tech
Dr. Christina Rost is an Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Virginia Tech and an affiliate faculty member at the Center for Nanoscale Science at The Pennsylvania State University. Before joining Virginia Tech in 2023, she was an Assistant Professor of Physics at James Madison University. Her research focuses on leveraging disorder to develop materials with tunable properties for advanced technologies. Dr. Rost earned a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from North Carolina State University in 2016 and a B.S. and M.S. in Physics from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She was a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Experiments and Simulations in Thermal Engineering (ExSITE) group and a Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow at the University of Virginia.
Dr. Rost is a pioneer in the field of high-entropy ceramics, having developed and characterized the first class of compositionally complex oxides stabilized by configurational disorder. She has co-authored over 45 peer-reviewed publications, which have collectively received more than 5,600 citations to date. She is the recipient of an NSF CAREER Award, the ACerS BSD Early Career Award, and the Provost’s Award for Excellence in Research and Scholarship at James Madison University. She has served as guest editor for Materials Letters, Journal of Applied Physics, and Applied Physics Letters. Dr. Rost currently serves as secretary-elect of the ACerS Electronics Division and played a pivotal role in expanding the Maryland/DC/Northern Virginia Section to include all of Virginia. She also serves on the review panel for Spectroscopy: Condensed Matter Physics and Magnetism at the Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory.
REGISTRATION
ACerS member: no cost
ACerS GGRN and Material Advantage student member: no cost
Non-member: $30
Non-member student: $15
If you have any questions, please contact Vicki Evans.
This webinar is brought to you by the ACerS Washington DC/Maryland/Virginia Section.
