Materials Science Weston Fulton Professor Sergei Kalinin has been named the 2026 winner of the IEEE Ferroelectrics Recognition Award, which recognizes meritorious achievement in the field of ferroelectricity or related sciences.

Established by the IEEE Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control Society in 1983, the international award has been presented to a total of 36 scholars worldwide. Kalinin is the first representative from the University of Tennessee to receive the honor.

“I am deeply honored by this recognition because ferroelectrics combine beautiful physics with a natural pathway to nanoscale exploration through piezoresponse force microscopy,” Kalinin said. “Over the past 25 years, PFM became more than a specialized probe technique; its near-quantitative electromechanical signal helped drive the development of quantitative scanning probe microscopy, multidimensional spectroscopies, and machine-learning methods for microscopy. In that sense, ferroelectrics opened one of the first real windows from machine learning into the nanoworld—where images became numbers, numbers became models, and models began to guide automated experiments.”

Kalinin is known for pioneering the integration of artificial intelligence, atomic-scale fabrication, and high-resolution microscopy. He has successfully trained AI/ML agents to autonomously conduct experiments to significantly accelerate atomic-level materials analysis. His work has helped position UT at the forefront of integrating AI/ML into materials characterization and optimization.

Kalinin has co-authored more than 25 patents and published more than 800 peer-reviewed scholarly articles in scanning probing techniques, data-centric discovery methods, and atomically engineering materials.

As the IEEE Ferroelectrics Recogntion Award winner, Kalinin will receive $2,000 and a plaque.

Contact

Rhiannon Potkey ([email protected])