Welcome to the Susan Trolier-McKinstry Research Group

Piezoelectric MEMS

Thin film piezoelectrics offer a number of advantages in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), due to the large motions that can be generated, often with low hysteresis, the high available energy densities, as well as high sensitivity sensors with wide dynamic ranges, and low power requirements. The Trolier-McKinstry group has explored a wide range of perovskite thin films for these applications, and has developed new characterization tools for measurement of thin film piezoelectric properties.

2022 Materials Day

Please save October 20 and 21 for Materials Day 2022, the annual marquee event for materials-related interdisciplinary science and engineering at Penn State. Held by the Materials Research Institute, this year’s event theme is "Materials Impacting Society." Breakout sessions and topics will address a perennial issue in university research: Researchers translating their discoveries in the lab to a point that they can be transitioned into the marketplace where they can benefit society.

Müeller: Erwin Müeller

Erwin Mueller

Müeller sees an atom: Invented the field ion microscope

Erwin Müeller served on the faculty of Penn State’s Department of Physics from 1952-1976. The German-born and -educated physicist is known as the “first man to see the atom.” A brilliant experimentalist, Müller’s invention of the field emission microscope (1936), the field ion microscope (1951), and the atom probe (1967) were seminal contributions to the fields of materials science and nanotechnology.

Quiggle: Dorothy Quiggle

Dorothy Quiggle

Quiggle, a Pioneer for Women in STEM

Dorothy Quiggle received a master's degree in chemical engineering in 1927 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and came to Pennsylvania State College as a research assistant in 1929. She became an instructor of chemical engineering in 1935, the next year becoming the first female faculty member in science or engineering at Penn State and the first woman Ph.D. in chemical engineering in the U.S.

Skell: Philip Skell

Philip Skell

The "Skell Rule" and the "Father of Carbene Chemistry"

Philip Skell was one of the founders of modern carbene research. He is best known for the “Skell Rule,” which is used to predict how some chemical compounds will form and has been used to assign spin states to carbenes, which are highly reactive molecules containing a divalent atom.

Weyl: Wondemar Weyl

Woldemar Weyl

The "father" of glass science: Modern science of glass

Woldermar Weyl could creditably be referred to as the “father” of glass science. Weyl was head of the department of glass technology at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Germany from 1932 to 1936. In 1936, he came to Penn State as a visiting professor and returned with his family to join the faculty in 1938. His early papers on the structure and constitution of glasses are classics in the field of glass and ceramics.

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