Talk
Patten Seminar: Steven R. Spurgeon
When
· 2:45 PM MDT
Shown in the venue’s time zone (America/Denver), not yours.
Where
Jennie Smoly Caruthers Biotec Building, A108
Boulder, CO
Tickets
No on-sale date recorded
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What the source said
Speaker: Steven R. Spurgeon, senior materials data scientist, National Laboratory of the Rockies Seminar: Structure, Process, Scale: Autonomous Materials Discovery from Atoms to Devices Host: Seth Marder Abstract Materials scientists have long organized their work around the interplay of synthesis, structure, and properties, but characterization typically arrives after processing is complete, too late to inform the next iteration. Our group is closing that gap by building an autonomous platform that links characterization and processing into a single, closed-loop system operating across atomic to device scales. At the atomic end, we resolve the three-dimensional architecture of point defects in MXenes across hundreds of thousands of lattice sites, using autonomous electron microscopy to link specific defect topologies back to synthesis chemistry through simulation. We then extend this same closed-loop logic to the device scale in our work on power electronics, where autonomous ion processing and failure analysis characterize defects in fabricated ultra-wide bandgap devices and directly inform subsequent prototyping decisions. Across both systems, defects emerge not as artifacts to be minimized but as a controllable variable spanning the full arc from structure to device, one that autonomous, AI-driven workflows are now making visible and addressable in real time. I will close on what it will take to fully realize this vision: a materials discovery pipeline where processing and characterization operate as a single autonomous system, and structure becomes as programmable as any other design parameter. Biosketch Dr. Steven R. Spurgeon is a Senior Materials Data Scientist at the National Laboratory of the Rockies, where he leads research at the intersection of AI/ML and materials science, developing autonomous approaches that span characterization and processing to accelerate the discovery and engineering of materials for advanced electronics, energy storage, and separations. He holds a joint faculty appointment in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering at the Colorado School of Mines, where he leads the TIME Research Group, and is a RASEI Fellow at the University of Colorado Boulder. He holds a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from Drexel University and has spent 16 years building AI-driven platforms that close the loop between atomic-scale structure and device-level performance. His work has been recognized with an R&D 100 Award and the Microscopy Society of America's Burton Medal, and has appeared in venues including Nature Materials, Nature Communications, and npj Computational Materials, totaling more than 96 publications and an h-index of 31. He currently leads a team of more than 10 staff and students building autonomous materials discovery pipelines that connect structure, process, and device outcomes.