December 8th:
Congratulations to our group members on your Ph.D. graduation achievement!
Wishing you all the best in your future endeavors!
October 26-29th:
Joint Meeting of SERMACS/SWRM 2025
Team members from left to right: Rishabh Sahani, Dr. Lai, Dr. Radu, Linisha Biswal, Catherine Buzzi, Changliang An, Jake Carrier, and Mia Vuong
October 21th:
Congratulations to our group member, Mellissa Komninakis, on successfully defending her Ph.D. dissertation on October 21, 2025! We proudly celebrate her achievements and the impactful contributions of her research.
October 20th:
Congratulations to our group member, Rishabh Sahani, on successfully defending his Ph.D. dissertation on October 20, 2025! We’re proud of your hard work, dedication, and contributions to the team.
October 20th:
Congratulations to our group member, Linisha Biswal, on successfully defending her Ph.D. dissertation on October 20, 2025! We celebrate her accomplishments and the impact of her research.
August 10th:
We are very excited to share that our group member, Ms. Mellissa Komninakis, has been awarded the 2025 ASTM International Graduate Scholarship, valued at $10,000!
Mellissa is a Ph.D. candidate in Materials Science and Engineering and a Research Specialist at FIU’s Applied Research Center (ARC). She was selected for this prestigious award in recognition of her outstanding academic achievements, her leadership in the FIU ASTM Student Chapter, and her technical expertise in nuclear technology and its applications.
👏 Congratulations, Mellissa, on this well-deserved honor!
June 10th-11th:
Dr. Daniela Radu, Principal Investigator, and Dr. Cheng-Yu Lai, Co-Principal Investigator of the PREM program at Florida International University, visited the NSF MIP Facility – NSF NEXUS at The Ohio State University on June 10–11, 2025, to discuss future collaborations.
Special thanks to the NEXUS team for the warm welcome and generous hospitality!
June 5th
URFIU Award Ceremony on 06/05/25 – Congratulations to Michael Keyack and Filippo Latte Blonval!
May 20th-21st:
Dr. Daniela Radu, Principal Investigator of the PREM program at Florida International University, presented “From 2D TMDCs to Ternary Chalcogenides: Materials-Specific Pathways to Sulvanite Nanostructures” at the “Graphene and Beyond: From Atoms to Applications” Workshop, held May 20–21, 2025, at The Pennsylvania State University, University Park Campus.
Special thanks to the NSF MIP-2DCC team for the warm welcome and generous hospitality!
April 25th:
🎓 Congratulations to Dr. Daniela Radu’s NASA CRES2DO student trainees: Fillipo Blonval, Roberto Nolasco, James Henry, Samuel Oyon, Michael Keyack, and Daniel Munoz on their graduation!
April 24th:
Congratulations to Daniel Munoz, Samuel Oyon, and James Henry on their graduation! 🎓
These graduate students have been working under the mentorship of Dr. Daniela Radu as part of the NSF PREM and DoD CIREES programs, making valuable contributions to research in crystal growth and optoelectronics.
Wishing them all the best as they move forward into the next exciting chapter of their careers!
March 27th:
Cosmic Humanity: Interdisciplinary Visions for Space Exploration
Daniela Radu Professor and Interim Chair, FIU Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, presenters at the symposium on March 27th, Cosmic Humanity: Interdisciplinary Visions for Space Exploration, hosted by the FIU School of Architecture.
April 7:
Recruiting now for 2025 cohorts
April 1:
Undergraduate Researchers Attended the 2025 URFIU Meeting.
December 1-6:
2024 MRS Fall Meeting & Exhibit
FIU NSF PREM PI- Dr.Radu celebrated the NSF PREM Program 20th Anniversary with NSF PREM Program officers and Other Institution PIs
NSF PREM Research Scholars Summit Poster Session in Boston, Massachusetts
October 21-23:
2024 NSF NRT PI Meeting
Dr Radu and FIU NSF NRT Program Coordinator Ms. Eduimar Urribarri.
December 4, 2023
Graduate students Daniel Munoz and Samuel Oyon were invited to White House to participate in “SOARING TOGETHER: Inspiring The Next Generation of Space Leaders” workshop . Proud both of you!
November 14, 2023
July 30, 2023
From left to right: Anthony Humaran, Josiah Beaufort, John Valencia, Michael Keyack, and Filippo Latte.
April 1, 2024:
Graduate Students Attended FIU’s Scholarly Forum.
(Team members from left to right: Daniel Muñoz, Rishabh Sahani and Jake Carrier)
March 17, 2024:
Saint Patrick’s Day in New Orleans
March 16, 2024:
ACS Meeting
February 9, 2024
December 12, 2023
Congratulations to Dr Tim Chang, we wish you all the best and will miss you!
December 4, 2023
Congratulations to Linisha Biswal and Rishabh Sahani for passing their PhD Qualifier Exams.
December 1, 2023
Annual Holiday Celebrations, Happy New Year!
November 14, 2023
NASA PI Meeting. Dr Radu and Program Coordinator Ms. Eduimar Urribarri.
October 27, 2023
Congratulations to Dr. Radu and her team for receiving $10 Million to establish the Department of Defense Center of Excellence in Renewable Energy Generation and Storage (CIREES) at FIU.
July 30, 2023
Congratulations to Dr Roberto Prado-Rivera!
July 6, 2023
Happy birthday to our NASA CRE2DO research coordinator, Eduimar Hinestroza!
June 27, 2023
Congratulations to our group member, Roberto Prado-Rivera, on successfully defending his Ph.D. dissertation!
June 11-18, 2023
Dr. Radu’s photovoltaic research team joins the 50th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico! (Participants from left to right: Daniel Munoz, Eduimar Hinestroza, Dr. Navdeep Kaur, Dr. Neetesh Kumar, and Rishabh Sahani)
May 18, 2023
Doctoral student Roberto Prado-Rivera presented his work on understanding obtaining 2D layered materials from 3D bulk order-vacancy compound (OVC) materials through computational modeling at the 2023 Graphene and Beyond Workshop!
March 29, 2023
We are very excited to share that our group member, Melissa Venedicto, has been awarded the 2023 National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship (GRFP). Congratulations Melissa!
March 26, 2022
Graduate students Na Ha and Melissa Venedicto participated in the 2023 South Florida Translational Research Symposium: Infection, Cancer and Inflammation – from Molecular Discoveries to Therapeutics, and presented their research work, “Infrared-Activated Bactericide: Rhenium Disulfide (ReS2)-Functionalized Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles“!
December 8, 2022
Dr. Daniela Radu has been the new director of FIU’s Advanced Materials Engineering Research Institute (AMERI)!
Read more at: https://cec.fiu.edu/2022/12/daniela-radu-named-new-director-of-fius-advanced-materials-engineering-research-institute-ameri
October 30, 2022
At the ACS Southeastern Regional Meeting with Prof. David MacMillan, Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2021.
At the Frost Museum of Science in Miami with Prof. Eric Cornell, Nobel Prize in Physics in 2001.
April 30, 2022
Congratulations to Mujtaba on his graduation! Mohammed Mujtaba Haqqani, CRE2DO Graduate Researcher under the mentorship of Dr. Daniela Radu, graduated with a MS degree in Engineering Management.
December 20, 2021
Congratulations to Tim and Roberto for passing their Ph.D. candidacy exams! Also, congratulations to Nicolas Maruri for completing his Master’s degree and for securing an industry job with Cummins!
Happy holidays!
August 28, 2021
August 25, 2021
August 5, 2021
July 15, 2021
July 12, 2021
March 23, 2021
January 10, 2021
December 10, 2020
August 7, 2020
July 21, 2020
This prestigious research award is among the only 17 national selections made in 2020. https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-awards-fellowships-to-advance-exploration-increase-minority-stem-opportunities/
May 5, 2020
Feb. 24, 2020
Jan. 1, 2020
Estudiantes hispanos involucrados en un programa de la NASA
Interview of the NASA CRE2DO research group headed by Dr. Daniela Radu.
Dec. 11, 2019
