News

Lab news.

Appointment

Dr. Wenwu Xu Appointed CSRC-Affiliated Faculty for SDSU–UC Irvine Joint Doctoral Program

Sep 2, 2026

Dr. Wenwu Xu has been appointed as an affiliated faculty member of San Diego State University’s Computational Science Research Center (CSRC). Through this appointment, Dr. Xu will advise and support students in the SDSU–UC Irvine Joint Doctoral Program in Computational Science. The affiliation strengthens connections between the M3 Lab’s materials research and computational-science training, creating new opportunities for doctoral student mentorship and interdisciplinary collaboration.

Student Research

Diego Cea and Isaiah Clemons Present Thermal-Elastic Processing Summer Research

Jul 31, 2026

Congratulations to Diego Cea and Isaiah Clemons for successfully completing their summer internship research program and presenting their Thermal-Elastic Processing research with the M3 Lab. Their project examined grain-boundary modifications in pure copper via thermal-elastic processing, connecting sample preparation, coupled thermal-mechanical testing, and microstructure characterization through the SDSU MESA Summer Undergraduate Research Academy.

Award

M3 Lab Leads $80,000 Multi-Campus CSU GUIDE AI-JUDGE Award

Jul 20, 2026

Dr. Wenwu Xu will lead an $80,000 CSU GUIDE collaboration with co-principal investigators Dr. Luwen (Vivian) Huangfu at San Diego State University and Dr. Ashley Ringer McDonald at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. The AI-JUDGE project will help undergraduate students learn to identify and correct scientifically inaccurate AI-generated simulation code while supporting six paid undergraduate researchers across the two campuses.

Student Research

Diego Cea and Isaiah Clemons Join M3 Lab Through SDSU MESA Summer Undergraduate Research Academy

Jul 2, 2026

Diego Cea and Isaiah Clemons, Mechanical Engineering juniors, joined the Multiscale Modeling of Materials Lab through the SDSU MESA Summer Undergraduate Research Academy 2026. During this eight-week, faculty-led research experience, they are working on Thermal-Elastic Processing experiments and characterization, including sample preparation and coupled thermal-mechanical testing, with support from SDSU MESA and MESA California.

Workshop

Dr. Wenwu Xu Attends MolSSI ACT-CMS Workshop at Virginia Tech

Jun 23, 2026

Dr. Wenwu Xu attended the MolSSI ACT-CMS workshop at the Molecular Sciences Software Institute near Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. As a 2025-2027 MolSSI ACT-CMS Faculty Fellow, Dr. Xu is developing "Transforming Materials Modeling Education through LLM-Assisted Coding and HPC Integration for SDSU's Doctoral Engineering Program." The workshop supports faculty fellows in integrating programming, computation, and reusable curriculum modules into molecular and materials science education.

Award

M3 Lab Joins Inaugural ASCEND Research and Leadership Program Cohort

Jun 5, 2026

Wenwu Xu received a $199,772 ASCEND Research and Leadership Program award from the Alliance of Hispanic Serving Research Universities for Thermal-Elastic Processing (TEP) for Defense-Relevant Localized Interface Engineering via Coupled Atomistic Modeling and in Situ Electron Microscopy. The project develops TEP as a localized interface-engineering strategy for defense-relevant structural metals, coupling atomistic modeling with in situ electron microscopy.

Talk

Invited Talk at GFMAT-3 / HTCMC-12 in San Diego

Jun 4, 2026

Prof. Wenwu Xu delivered an invited talk at GFMAT-3 / HTCMC-12 in San Diego on June 4, 2026. His talk, "Flash Sintering of YSZ from Atomistic Modeling and Experiment: Mechanisms and Grain Growth," presented the lab's integrated simulation-experiment work on flash sintering mechanisms, field-enhanced diffusion, and grain growth in yttria-stabilized zirconia.

Award

W.M. Keck Foundation Supports Electro-Nano-Pulsing Research

Jul 15, 2025

SDSU researchers received W.M. Keck Foundation support for research on powerful nanosecond pulses as a possible route to manipulate grain-boundary structures.

News Archive

Documentation records by year.

2025

Fellowship

Dr. Wenwu Xu Receives JSPS Invitational Fellowship for Research in Japan

Mar 31, 2025

Dr. Wenwu Xu received the FY2024 Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Invitational Fellowship for Research in Japan. The fellowship supported a 32-day research collaboration in Spring 2025 with host Professor Dr. Motomichi Koyama at Tohoku University, advancing international research exchange in materials science and modeling.