Yang Yang, an assistant professor of engineering science and mechanics who is affiliated with the Materials Research Institute at Penn State, has been named the inaugural TMS/KIM Young Leaders International Scholar, an award that recognizes early-career researchers with outstanding technical achievements and leadership potential.
Presented jointly by the Minerals, Metals and Materials Society (TMS) and the Korean Institute of Metals and Materials (KIM), the award offers Yang the opportunity to present his work at the KIM Fall Meeting in South Korea later this year. The international exchange is designed to foster global collaboration in materials science and engineering.
For Yang, the honor is more than recognition; it is a bridge to a deeper level of scientific cooperation, he said.
"This award is a great encouragement," Yang said. "But more importantly, it's a chance to listen, learn and contribute to a global conversation about how to build better materials."
One of Yang's research focuses on "short-range order" in multi-principal element alloys - materials made by mixing multiple elements in nearly equal atomic amounts to create metals with unique and customizable properties. While these materials may appear uniform at a larger scale, Yang said he is interested in what's happening at the atomic level.
"Short-range order refers to how atoms arrange themselves in a small neighborhood, meaning just one or two atomic distances away," Yang said, explaining that an "atomic distance" is the space of one atom. "Even if the material looks completely homogeneous from a distance, the atoms can locally form preferred patterns or bonds. These patterns can have a big impact on how the material behaves."
Understanding and controlling these atomic-scale arrangements is one of the keys to designing next-generation materials with enhanced strength, durability, or corrosion resistance. Yang's papers on the subject, both published in 2024 Nature Communications, have drawn international attention for advancing both the experimental and theoretical understanding of short-range order, he said.
Characterizing these tiny arrangements, however, is no easy task. One of the major goals of Yang's research is to develop more precise methods to detect and analyze short-range order, which could unlock new capabilities in materials design, such as creating tougher ceramics or more efficient battery electrodes.
"Right now, characterizing short-range order experimentally is very challenging," he said. "If we can improve how we measure and understand it, we'll be in a much better position to engineer materials with specific performance characteristics."
As part of the award, Yang will attend the KIM Fall Meeting to present his findings to a Korean audience of researchers and industry professionals. Yang has previously collaborated with Korean colleagues and hosted a visiting student, but this is his first opportunity to visit the country. It's a chance not only to share his work, he said, but also to learn from others, particularly in a country known for its advanced metallurgical industry.
"I'm really looking forward to visiting some industrial companies in Korea," Yang said. "They have strong materials research and development programs, and I hope to learn more about how they approach materials design from a practical perspective."
Yang also said he sees the trip as a way to establish new collaborations that could shape the future of his work.
"International collaboration is not just about publishing papers together," Yang said. "It's about understanding what others are working on, especially since research priorities can vary by country depending on funding and industry needs. Seeing the work firsthand and having in-person conversations can help us identify the most important challenges to solve next."
Yang said he believes that experiences like this one also broaden the impact of research by giving it new audiences. While journal articles are essential for documenting findings, he noted that presenting research at conferences allows for more intuitive and engaging communication.
"Sometimes it's easier to understand a talk than to read a dense paper," Yang said. "Giving a talk lets people ask questions, have discussions and get inspired in real time. That can lead to fresh ideas and new directions."
Upon returning from the KIM meeting, Yang will write an article about his experience for JOM: The Magazine, the member publication of TMS. He said he hopes the story will encourage more early-career researchers to pursue international collaboration and consider the broader value of scientific exchange.
For now, Yang is preparing his talk and looking forward to meeting collaborators he has only interacted with virtually. He said the trip could help shape the next five or 10 years of his research and potentially lead to materials innovations that impact everything from aerospace engineering to medical devices.
"We will need better materials to build a better future, and I'm looking forward to growing the connections I have and making new ones to advance this work," Yang said.
