Principal Investigator
Prof. Andrea Hodge
Professor, USC Viterbi School of Engineering
Arthur B. Freeman Professorship
2004 Staff Scientist, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
2002 Post Doctoral Fellow, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
2002 Ph.D., Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University
Andrea Hodge holds the Arthur B. Freeman Professorship in the Viterbi School of Engineering, where she has a joint appointment in the Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, and the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering. A member of our faculty since 2007, Professor Hodge has specialized in research on nanomechanics and supervises the Hodge Materials Research Group. She has studied extensively the mechanical behavior of engineered materials at the nano- and micro- scale. In recognition of her innovative research, Professor Hodge has received a number of significant honors, including the Young Leader Award from The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s Excellence in Publication Award, the Young Faculty Award from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, a Young Investigator Program award from the Office of Naval Research, a National Science Foundation (NSF) BRIDGE Award, and an NSF CAREER award.
Research Interests: Nanocrystalline materials processing, thin and thick film coatings, multilayers synthesis, corrosion, biomaterials, nanomechanics, hierarchical materials processing, grain boundary engineering
Email: ahodge@usc.edu
Postdoctoral Researchers
Dr. Koushik Jagadish
Postdoctoral Researcher
2022 Ph.D., Materials Research Centre, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), India
2017 M.Sc., Materials Science, Mangalore University, India
2015 B.Sc., Physics, Mysore Education Society, India
Research Interests: Electron Microscopy, Crystal growth, Oxide thin films, quantum materials
Email: kjagadis@usc.edu
Graduate Students
Andre Bohn
Ph.D. Student, Materials Science
2022 B.Sc., Materials Science and Engineering, University of Minnesota – Twin Cities
Research Interests: Combinatorial and high-throughput synthesis and characterization, High Entropy Alloys, magnetron sputtering, nanoindentation
Email: bohndama@usc.edu
2024 M.S., Materials Science and Engineering, University of California Santa Barbara
2023 B.S., Mechanical Engineering, University of California Santa Barbara
Research Interests: Additive Manufacturing, High Entropy Alloys, Bulk Metallic Glasses
Email: aabotros@usc.edu
2022 M.Sc., Space Engineering and Technology, Science and Technology of Materials and Sensors, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais, Brazil
2020 B.Sc., Chemical Engineering, Universidad de Los Andes, Colombia
2018 B.Sc., Mechanical Engineering, Universidad de Los Andes, Colombia
Research Interests: Nanometallic Multilayers, Extreme Environments
Email: capotesa@usc.edu
Ashley J. Maldonado Otero
Ph.D. Student, Materials Science
NASA NSTGRO Fellow
2020 B.Sc., Chemical Engineering, University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez
Research Interests: Magnetron sputtering, thin films
Email: ajmaldon@usc.edu
Danielle White
Ph.D. Candidate, Materials Science
2019 B.Sc., Mechanical Engineering, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University
Research Interests: Nano multilayers, interfaces
Email: dewhite@usc.edu
Ikponmwosa Iyinbor
Ph.D. Student, Materials Science
2024 M.S., Materials Engineering, University of Southern California
2021 B.Sc., Mechanical Engineering, Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta, Nigeria
Research Interests: Magnetron sputtering, thin films
Email: iyinbor@usc.edu
Kyle Russell
Ph.D. Candidate, Mechanical Engineering
2020 B.A., Physics, Wesleyan University
Research Interests: Nanometallic multilayers, nanomaterial deterioration
Email: kyler782@usc.edu
2023 M.S., Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Management, University of Southern California
2017 B.Sc., Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Irvine
Research Interests: Additive Manufacturing, Creep
Email: ororst@usc.edu
2024 B. Sc., Chemical Engineering, University of Southern California
Research Interests: Nanoindentation
Email: atsung@usc.edu
Undergraduate Students
Pumarie Madden
In Progress 2025 B.Sc., Chemical Engineering, University of Southern California
Research Interests: Nanoindentation
Email: pamadden@usc.edu
Nicole Chou
In Progress 2025 B.Sc., Industrial & Systems Engineering, University of Southern California
In Progress 2025 M.S., Product Development Engineering, University of Southern California
Research Interests: Nanoindentation
Email: nkchou@usc.edu