Research

The research in Prof. Brenner’s group focuses on developing new materials for extreme environments using atomic simulation, first principles methods, and multi-scale modeling approaches that bridge from atomic to macroscopic time and length scales. Recent research includes new high entropy ceramics for hypersonic applications and as super-hard materials, new liquid lubrication strategies using nanoparticles for reducing friction and wear, materials for pressurized water nuclear reactors that reduce corrosion and enhance fuel lifetimes, nano-laminate thermites, convolutional methods and machine learning to characterize plastic damage in crystals, and simulations that focus on understanding sub-surface interfacial damage from shock loading.