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UNF Materials Symposium
The 2026 UNF Materials Symposium will be held on Friday, May 8th from 9:30 am - 4:30 pm in the Talon Room on the 4th floor of Osprey Commons (Building 16) on the UNF campus. It will feature invited talks, a catered lunch, and a student poster session. The event is free and open to everyone interested in materials science and engineering. The registration deadline was April 20th, but anyone who would still like to register as an attendee should email daniel.santavicca@unf.edu.
| 9:30-9:35 | Welcome and Opening Remarks | |
| 9:35-10:35 | Materials Research Across UNF: Part I | |
| 9:35-9:55 | “Antiperovskites as Functional Materials” Eirin Sullivan, Associate Professor of Chemistry, UNF |
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| 9:55-10:15 | “End-of-Life Materials Management: Implications for Human Health and the Environment” Florentino De la Cruz, Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering, UNF |
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| 10:15-10:35 | “Design and Processing-Structure-Properties Interrelationship in Advanced Alloys” Nelson Delfino de Campos Neto, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, UNF |
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| 10:35-10:45 | Coffee Break | |
| 10:45-11:45 | Industry Focus Session | |
| 10:45-11:00 | “Scrap to Strength: How CMC Advances Sustainable Steelmaking” Justin Gibson, Reliability Engineer, CMC Steel |
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| 11:00-11:15 | “From UNF to Space: Entrepreneurship and Space Technology” Andrew Rush, President & CEO, Star Catcher |
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| 11:15-11:30 | “Selective Laser Sintering Material Considerations – A Pragmatic Approach” Peyton Hopson, Fellow, 3D Printing Polymer and Pharmaceutical Lead, Johnson & Johnson |
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| 11:30-11:45 | “Redwire Defend Above” Paul Sheldon, Director of Operations, Redwire Space Missions |
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| 11:45-12:45 | Symposium Lunch | |
| 12:45-1:30 | Keynote Talk | “The Florida Semiconductor Institute: From Vision to Velocity” David Arnold, Director of the Florida Semiconductor Institute and George Kirkland Engineering Leadership Professor, University of Florida |
| 1:30-2:10 | Materials Research Across UNF: Part II | |
| 1:30-1:50 | “Magnetic Interactions in Quantum Clusters and their Effect on Quantum Decoherence” Jason Haraldsen, Professor of Physics, UNF |
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| 1:50-2:10 | “The Tale that Fish Can Tell: Advancing Interdisciplinary Research Through Morphological Analysis” M. Laura Habegger, Assistant Professor of Biology, UNF |
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| 2:10-2:20 | Coffee Break | |
| 2:20-3:20 | Graduate Student Research Talks | |
| 2:20-2:35 | “Systemic Delivery of Nanoparticles to Osteoarthritic Joints” Molly Dobrow, Doctoral Student in Biomedical Engineering, University of Florida |
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| 2:35-2:50 | “Growth Optimization of YBa2Cu3O7-x Thin Films Using MBE Flux Gradients and Closed-Loop Electronic Transport” Daniela Amalfi Ojeda, Master's Student in Materials Science and Engineering, UNF |
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| 2:50-3:05 | “Graphene-Based Josephson Junctions” Emily Frederick, Doctoral Student in Physics, University of Central Florida |
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| 3:05-3:20 | “Mechanical Properties and Hydrophobic Tendencies of Additively Manufactured Ultem 9085 for Maritime Environment Applications” Zach Williams, Master's Student in Materials Science and Engineering, UNF |
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| 3:20-4:20 | Poster Session | |
| 4:20-4:30 | Concluding Remarks | |
This event is made possible through support from the UNF College of Arts and Sciences and the UNF College of Computing, Engineering, and Construction.