{"id":1834,"date":"2025-09-03T11:13:48","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T15:13:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tickle.utk.edu\/mse\/?p=1834"},"modified":"2025-09-03T11:16:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T15:16:08","slug":"mse-welcomes-new-faculty-members-fall-25","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tickle.utk.edu\/mse\/mse-welcomes-new-faculty-members-fall-25\/","title":{"rendered":"MSE Welcomes New Faculty Members"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Two new faculty members have joined the Department of Materials Science and Engineering starting in the fall 2025 semester, bringing with them a range of expertise in various areas.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-1801 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/tickle.utk.edu\/mse\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/08\/weinan-xu.jpg\" alt=\"Weinan Xu\" width=\"400\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tickle.utk.edu\/mse\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/08\/weinan-xu.jpg 400w, https:\/\/tickle.utk.edu\/mse\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/08\/weinan-xu-200x300.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"orange-mark\">Weinan Xu<\/h2>\n<p><em>Assistant Professor<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Xu joins the UT faculty from the University of Akron, where he was an assistant professor in the School of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering. Xu\u2019s current research focuses on the development of sustainable\/functional polymer composites and their advanced manufacturing, with applications in energy, electronics, and biomedicine. Xu obtained his PhD in materials science and engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology and did postdoctoral research at Johns Hopkins University. He has been recognized with several awards, including the DARPA Young Faculty Award, the Polymer Processing Society Early Career Award, and the Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering (PMSE) Early Investigator Award from the American Chemical Society.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-1800 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/tickle.utk.edu\/mse\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/08\/matthew-cothrine.jpg\" alt=\"Matthew Cothrine\" width=\"400\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tickle.utk.edu\/mse\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/08\/matthew-cothrine.jpg 400w, https:\/\/tickle.utk.edu\/mse\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/08\/matthew-cothrine-200x300.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"orange-mark\">Matthew Cothrine<\/h2>\n<p><em>Assistant Teaching Professor<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Cothrine received his PhD in materials science from UT in 2025. His dissertation research focused on synthesis and characterization of new electronic and magnetic materials, particularly the growth of low-dimensional magnets to be characterized via ultra-low (sub 1 K) temperature physical property measurements and neutron diffraction. He joins the faculty as a teaching professor in the MSE, where he teaches the junior-level laboratory courses among other classes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am excited to join the MSE department to help pass on my skills and passion for the field to our students. I look forward to helping grow this already phenomenal department even further and to ensuring our students succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"orange-mark\">Contact<\/h2>\n<p>Rhiannon Potkey (<a href=\"mailto:rpotkey@utk.edu\">rpotkey@utk.edu<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two new faculty members have joined the Department of Materials Science and Engineering starting in the fall 2025 semester, bringing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[518,519],"class_list":["post-1834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faculty","tag-matthew-cothrine","tag-weinan-xu"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>MSE Welcomes New Faculty 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