Our goal is to build upon recognized research strengths, including energy production and distribution; transportation and logistics; manufacturing and materials, and accelerate collaborative research in areas such as autonomous systems; sustainable systems and structures; engineering for human health; computing and information; and cyber-physical systems and security.
The University of Kentucky is one of only eight universities in the country with a major medical center featuring six health sciences colleges, and the full spectrum of academic colleges on one continuous campus. The close proximity of such a large range of programs is an incubator for inter- and transdisciplinary initiatives. Discoveries from these collaborations allow our researchers to address the needs of the citizens of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, our nation and our world.
John Balk, William T. Bryan Professor of Materials Engineering and associate dean for research and graduate studies, has established an outstanding record of research productivity, quality and impact that places him amongst our most distinguished faculty in the Pigman College of Engineering. Balk’s research focus is the elucidation of structure-property relationships in the behavior of metals, alloys and covalent materials, with current projects related to size effects and mechanical behavior, high-entropy alloys, and functional properties of thermionic dispenser cathodes. Balk has served as chair for the Gordon Research Conference on Thin Film and Small-Scale Mechanical Behavior, and in 2015 was elected one of five national co-chairs for the fall meeting of the Materials Research Society, the largest professional organization for materials scientists and engineers.
In November, University of Kentucky Pigman College of Engineering faculty provided a platform for experts to exchange ideas and innovations in hypersonic atmospheric reentry, materials science and space exploration technologies at the 14th Ablation Workshop at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland.
Faezah Akbari, a doctoral candidate in the F. Joseph Halcomb III, M.D. Department of Biomedical Engineering, has been named the 14th Halcomb Fellow. Akbari seeks to develop a novel technology to improve brain imaging in neonatal infants.
Established in 2024, the Lighthouse Beacon Foundation Endowment supports faculty, research, graduate students, facilities and research infrastructure in the Pigman College of Engineering. In its inaugural year, the endowment has made $160,000 in funds available for distribution, with a priority on faculty and research scholar support.
UK Pigman College of Engineering recommends the formation of the Institute for Decarbonization and Energy Advancement (IDEA).
A Q&A with Michael M. McGlue, professor in the Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences, and Sebastian Bryson, chair of civil engineering in the Stanley and Karen Pigman College of Engineering, about the $20 million collaborative project to build climate resilience in Kentucky.
143 current UK scientists and scholars were included on the list compiled by Stanford University in a partnership with Elsevier, and 22 of those included are UK Pigman College of Engineering faculty.
