Functional Glasses and Materials Modeling Laboratory (FGM2L)

Functional Glasses and Materials Modeling Laboratory at UNT focuses on functional glass and ceramic materials for biomedical, electronic, environmental and energy application, as well applying and development computer simulations and materials modeling methods to study various types of material structures and behaviors. We are currently working on research topics like bioactive glasses, nuclear waste glasses, glass corrosion, solid state electrolytes, low-k dielectrics, and electronic ceramics.

We use atomistic computer simulation methods such as classical and ab initio molecular dynamics simulations, first principles calculations, and Monte Carlo simulations. We are also interested in developing empirical potentials for the modeling of oxide glass/ceramics and related materials, developing Monte Carlo and Kinetic Monte Carlo methods to study complex structures and chemical reactions. The computational and modeling investigations are usually integrated with experimental studies, either in the group or with collaborators. 

FGM2L is led by Dr. Jincheng Du who is a Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering of University of North Texas, Denton, Texas. Dr. Du received his Ph.D. in Ceramics from New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University in 2004. He subsequently worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and later as a research associate at University of Virginia. He joined the MSE Department of UNT as a faculty member in 2007 and was promoted to Professor in 2017. Prof. Du’s research focues on atomistic computer simulations of glass, ceramics, and nanostructured materials. His research has been funded by both federal angencies (NSF, DOE, ARL, AFRL) and multi industry sources (such as SRC and AGC) with over $4M total external funding (his portion. Total award >$16M). He has published over 150 peer reviewed papers and proceeding papers. He recently co-authored a book on Molecular dynamics simulations of amorphous materials in the Springer Series of Material Science in 2015. Dr. Du is a frequent speaker on the topics in national and international conferences and has made over 75 invited talks and seminars. He is the Technical Committee Chair of TC27 atomistic simulation of glass of International Commission of Glass (ICG). He currently serves as the Chair of the Glass and Optical Materials Division of American Ceramic Society. He serves as Associate Editor of International Journal of Applied Glass Science and Frontier of Materials: Glass Science. Prof. Du is the recipient of the university Research Leadership Award (2018), Early Career Award of Research and Creativity (2012), and college of engineering Faculty Research Award (2016) of UNT. He is also the recipient of the W.E.S. Turner Award of International Commission on Glass (ICG) and the Fulbright US Scholar (2019). 

 

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