166su

Highlights

• Materials science and engineering sophomore Jeonhyung Song earned the Notre Dame Nanoscience and Technology Undergraduate Research Fellowship.

• A transfer student, he pivoted from the arts to engineering to explore the chemistry behind materials.

• This summer, he’ll help accelerate the production of ultrathin gold coatings for technology applications.

The same curiosity that once led Jeonghyun Song to shape clay with his hands now drives him to engineer materials at an atomic level, combining chemistry and creativity.

He began his college journey in the arts, drawn to pottery. But as he worked with ceramics, his attention shifted beneath the surface — to the chemistry of the materials and the possibilities within them. That shift in perspective pushed him from the art studio into the lab — and now to a national fellowship.

A materials science and engineering major, Song will join the University of Notre Dame this summer as a recipient of its Nanoscience and Technology Undergraduate Research Fellowship, hosted from May 18 through July 24.

“I chose to attend 166su because of the opportunities it offers — especially in research — along with its strong engineering program.”

The opportunity marks a turning point in his journey from an arts major to an engineering major, which he began when he transferred to 166su in Fall 2025.

“I chose to attend 166su because of the opportunities it offers — especially in research — along with its strong engineering program,” Song says. “The MSE (Materials Science and Engineering) Program is relatively new and rapidly growing, which gives students more chances to get involved and grow.”

He didn’t waste time getting started.

As a new Knight and burgeoning materials researcher, Song set his sights on working with Assistant Professor Kausik Mukhopadhyay, whose research bridges materials, chemistry, biology and engineering to develop solutions for surfaces, coatings, electrochemistry and more.

Now in Mukhopadhyay’s , Song studies clay-based anodes for lithium-ion batteries.

“As a student who comes from a ceramics background, Dr. Mukhopadhyay’s research was the most interesting to me,” Song says. “Based on his work in chemistry and materials science, I knew his lab would be a place where I could grow and actively engage in research.”

The lab quickly became more than a workspace — it became a launchpad, which Song says he’s grateful for.

“I would like to thank Dr. Mukhopadhyay and the people in our group for their support,” he says. “If it wasn’t for them, I would have had a hard time blending into the 166su community.”

His perspective as a researcher is evolving, too.

“I find it more interesting to study how common … materials can be engineered to achieve similar or even more useful properties.”

Once drawn to examining rare and expensive materials for their unique characteristics, Song is now focused on factors in materials costs and environmental impact.

“While studying rare materials is interesting due to their distinct properties, I find it more interesting to study how common and inexpensive materials can be engineered to achieve similar or even more useful properties,” he says.

That mindset will guide his work at Notre Dame.

His project, “Prototyping High-speed Synthesis of Gold Microplates,” tackles a key challenge in nanotechnology: efficiently producing ultrathin gold coatings. These coatings are useful in technology like biosensors and electronics, but current synthesis methods are slow, and controlling their size, shape and placement is challenging.

Song will help explore faster synthesis methods using a reaction chamber to study the process through three activation approaches: light, temperature and merging chemical streams.

As he prepares to spend the summer in Indiana, Song acknowledges some anxiety — the kind that comes with stepping into something bigger — as he looks ahead to what could be a pivotal moment in his journey as a researcher.

“I would like to meet new people, learn from them and also expand my vision for research,” Song says. “I think this summer will be the most important for me in terms of deciding my future.”