Welcome to the Mangolini Research Group, the Laboratory for Applied Surface Science (LASS) at The University of Texas at Austin. Our interdisciplinary group focuses on the study of the structural transformations and chemical reactions occurring on material surfaces and at solid/solid, solid/liquid interfaces under extreme environments and conditions far from equilibrium.
Most Recent News
Group members
04/2025 – Jimmy successfully defended his PhD thesis. Congratulations, Dr. Yan!
02/2025 – The group welcomes Marta Maia, an undergraduate Mathematics student who will work on diffusion modeling of water in MoS2!
01/2025 – Hsu-Ming passed his preliminary exam! Well done, Hsu-Ming!
09/2024 – The group welcomes Alexandra Vaughn, Victoria Li, and Natalia Orejas, undergraduate students in Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering , and Chemistry!
08/2024 – The group welcomes Feliz Zhang, a new graduate student in Mechanical Engineering!
07/2024 – Our RET teachers, Ruben Ramirez and Lisette Perazzo, present their posters at the RET End of the Summer Poster Session. So exciting to see the work carried out over the summer!
06/2024 – The group welcomes Preston Davis, an undergraduate student in Mechanical Engineering!
Awards
11/2024 – Congratulations to Filippo for his induction as a 2024 American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Rising Star. The recognition was presented at the 2024 International Mechanical Engineering Congress & Exposition IMECE Conference (Portland, OR, November 2024)
11/2024 – Congratulations to Nicolas for being awarded the Dorothy M. and Earl S. Hoffman Award by the American Vacuum Society!
08/2024 – Nicolas was selected as finalist of the American Vacuum Society (AVS) National Graduate Student Award as well as of the AVS Applied Surface Science Division Graduate Student Award. Good luck!
08/2024 – Filippo was appointed as holder of the Cockrell Family Fellowship #4
07/2024 – Congratulations to Jimmy and Logan for being awarded the 1st and 2nd place in the Graduate Poster Category at the 2024 Tribology Gordon Research Conference!
Conferences
03/2025 – Filippo delivers an invited talk on the surface mechanocatalytic reactivity of nanocrystalline alloys at the 154th TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition.
03/2025 – Filippo presents the group’s work on the dynamic wetting behavior of ionic liquids at the ACS Spring 2025 Meeting & Expo.
12/2024 – Filippo delivered an invited talk at Boron in the Americas (BORAM) conference!
07/2024 – The group had a fantastic time at the 2024 Tribology Gordon Research Conference! Well done to Jimmy, Nicolas, Hsu-Ming, Owen, and Logan, who presented posters.
05/2024 – Nicolas delivered two oral presentations at the 78th STLE Annual Meeting & Exhibition! Well done!
11/2023 – Filippo delivered an invited talk at the STLE Tribology Frontiers Conference!
11/2023 – The group had a fantastic time at the STLE Tribology Frontiers Conference! Well done to Jimmy, Logan, and Nicolas, who gave talks on their research projects.
Publications
03/2025 – Our work on the quantitative evaluation of the carbon hybridization state by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) is accepted in Physical Review Materials!
03/2025 – Our collaboration with Prof. Tehrani’s group is accepted for publication in the Composites Part B: Engineering!
01/2025 – Our work on Pickering emulsion-templated encapsulated ionic liquids used as lubricant additives is accepted in the Journal of Molecular Liquids!
01/2025 – Our work on the effect of annealing on the tribological response of Zr-based bulk metallic glass is accepted in APL Materials!
05/2024 – Our collaboration with Prof. Page’s group is accepted for publication in Advanced Materials!
05/2024 – Our work on the effect of europium and gadolinium on the tribological response of amorphous carbon films is accepted in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces!
05/2024 – Camille’s work on the mechanocatalytic formation of carbon-rich films on Pt-Au alloys is accepted in Carbon!
04/2024 – Hsu-Ming’s work on the tribologically-induced changes in surface chemistry of Zr-based bulk metallic glass is accepted in Applied Surface Science!
Projects
10/2024 – Many thanks to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for supporting our collaborative work with Prof. Chih-Hao Chang’s group through a Early Stage Innovations (ESI) Grant!
08/2024 – Many thanks to the American Chemical Society (ACS) Petroleum Research Fund (PRF) for supporting our work through a New Directions (ND) Grant!
06/2024 – Many thanks to the UT Austin-Portugal program for supporting our work through a Exploratory Research Projects (ERPs) grant!
07/2023 – Filippo secured a Collaborative NSF Grant! Looking forward to working with Prof. Iglesias!
06/2023 – Many thanks to the Welch Foundation for supporting our work through a Research Grant!