Group Members

Principal Investigator

Dr. Balk is the William T. Bryan Professor of Materials Engineering in the Stanley and Karen Pigman College of Engineering, and Associate Vice President for Research Development and Support in the UK Office of Research. He served as Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies in the Pigman College of Engineering from 2018-2025, director of the Electron Microscopy Center since 2010, and he has directed the Materials Science Research Priority Area since 2023. Before joining UK in 2004, Dr. Balk served as a visiting scientist and staff scientist at the Max-Planck-Institut für Metallforschung, in Stuttgart, Germany. He earned his M.S. and Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

As a principal investigator, Dr. Balk has been funded by multiple sponsors including the National Science Foundation (NSF), Department of Energy, Office of Naval Research, Army Research Office, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). He leads a multi-institutional project, funded by the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), to develop novel first-wall materials to withstand the harsh conditions of a fusion reactor environment. His research group works to understand structure-property relationships in the behavior of metals, alloys and ceramics, with characterization of advanced materials as the cross-cutting aspect of his research program.

Dr. Balk’s honors include the Southeastern Conference (SEC) Faculty Achievement Award, the Pigman College of Engineering Awards for Excellence in Research and Excellence in Service, the Provost’s Award for Outstanding Teaching, and he received his program’s Outstanding Materials Engineering Teacher Award 10 times.

John Balk, PhD, PE

Principal Investigator Associate Vice President for Research Development and Support

Linked Department (or Location): Faculty Profile
Location Detail: Main Building
Email: john.balk@uky.edu
Phone: (859) 257-4582

Current Members

Dr. Michael Detisch Post-Doctoral Scholar

Doctoral candidate in materials engineering focused on incorporating nanoporous metallic films into metal-polymer composite membrane systems. Co-advised by Dr. Dibakar Bhattacharyya. Past projects include dispenser cathode studies.

Tibra Das Gupta Post-Doc

Research Areas

My research interests focus on the fabrication of nanoporous materials
testing their properties with different characterization techniques
and developing new de-alloying methods.

Zahidur Rahman Ph.D. Candidate

Zahid’s research focuses on developing multi-principal element alloys (MPEAs). He has expertise in fabricating bulk and thin-film MPEAs via vacuum arc melting and magnetron sputtering, as well as in their thermomechanical processing. He is proficient in optical microscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) for microstructural and phase characterization, and in nanoindentation for micromechanical property evaluation. His work aims to design alloys with superior mechanical performance for advanced applications and to elucidate processing–structure–property relationships in MPEAs.

Riya Barua Ph.D. Candidate

Riya is focusing on characterization and testing mechanical properties of high entropy alloy. She has gained expertise in SEM, EDS, XRD, EBSD, Gleeble in Balk research lab.

Ryan Chapman Ph.D. Candidate

Ryan works on the development of tungsten-based nanocomposites for plasma-facing material applications. His core research focus is the fabrication and subsequent modification of bulk nanoporous tungsten through a powder processing approach. A variety of materials characterization techniques (scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and simultaneous thermal analysis as examples) are implemented alongside these fabrication efforts to better understand the relationship between processing, structure, and properties of these materials.

ASM Tahmid Reza Ph.D. Candidate

Tahmid’s research mainly focuses on rapid thermal processing (RTP) of steels, particularly stainless steels, with an emphasis on understanding phase transformations, carbide dissolution, reatined austenite stability, microstructural evolution, and resulting mechanical properties. His work involves characterizing processed materials using SEM, EDS, XRD, mechanical testing, and nanoindentation to establish processing-structure-property relationships. He received his undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), Bangladesh, where his thesis focused on nanomaterial synthesis and characterization.

Monica Argumedo Rendon Ph.D. Student

Monica's research focuses on the multi-analytical microstructural characterization of paper before and after aqueous treatment with emerging engagement in mechanical testing and spectroscopy. In parallel, she is independently trained in XRF (portable and benchtop systems) and has used it extensively in recent months as part of a related research project about identification of poisonous book covers.