Eva Zarkadoula, a senior R&D staff member at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, or CNMS, at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has been elected vice-chair of the Chemistry and Physics of Materials Committee of the Minerals, Metals & Materials Society, or TMS. After a two-year tenure in the role, she will ascend to the committee’s chair position.
TMS is a global professional society uniting minerals, metals and materials scientists and engineers across industry, academia and government sectors. The TMS Chemistry and Physics of Materials Committee focuses on fundamental issues related to the chemistry and physics of materials.
Zarkadoula previously assisted the committee as a volunteer organizer of its annual symposium. She also is an advisor for JOM, which is the journal of the TMS, and she was a guest editor in two issues of that publication. In her role as vice-chair, she will support the current chair in implementing his vision and in the process gain a broader view of TMS.
“Serving as vice-chair will build my communication and networking skills,” Zarkadoula said. “Networking is the most important part of my being in TMS, because I’ve connected with colleagues who have common research interests I wouldn’t have otherwise met. My leadership role will not only help me practice and acquire new skills but also be a way to help other people — and that’s what’s driving me.”
The committee encompasses many different fields, such as computational thermodynamics and kinetics, chemistry and physics of interfaces and surfaces, material design, phase stability, mechanical properties and diffusion and transport. Consequently, Zarkadoula said she wants to help ensure it is aware of all the various symposia, helping to sponsor the ones that represent growing areas of interest.
Zarkadoula also expressed a passion for supporting diversity in STEM and a desire to see all groups represented in the committee’s invited talks. In addition, she has the goal to involve more early career staff in the committee as members and encourage them to participate and grow their networks.
“I think it’s very important for senior scientists to introduce early career scientists to professional societies because it doesn’t happen by default. That’s why I plan to make those introductions,” Zarkadoula said.
Originally from Greece, Zarkadoula joined ORNL as a postdoctoral research associate in 2014 in the Materials Science and Technology Division, or MSTD, after receiving her doctorate in physics from Queen Mary University of London. In 2016, she became an MSTD staff member and pursued her interest in understanding the behavior of materials in extreme conditions such as radiation and high temperatures and pressures. While participating in the Physical Sciences Directorate’s mentoring program in 2022, she was paired with CNMS director Karren More and later joined CNMS’s Nanomaterials Theory Institute. Her work at the institute focuses on understanding responses of materials in extreme conditions, including their interactions with radiation, microstructural evolution and mechanical behavior.
UT-Battelle manages ORNL for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. The Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science. — Scott Gibson
