Research Quick Takes

May 07, 2026

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy for Tendons

PhD candidate Afton Limberg (pictured) is first-author with Lily Giurleo '28, Victoria Ruiz '26, PhD candidate Amritha Anup Th'23, and professors Jay Buckey, Doug Van Citters and Katie Hixon as co-authors on "In Vitro Modulation of Murine Tenocyte Behavior by Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy" published in the Journal of Orthopaedic Research. The study—a collaboration between Hixon Lab and DBEC—aimed to improve understanding of the effects of oxygen therapy on tendon cells and healing. "I consider tendons one of the most under-studied musculoskeletal tissues," said Limberg. "Hyberbaric oxygen presents a novel non-invasive therapy that could actually promote tendon healing, and we showed that it does have an effect on tendon cells. Next steps are to conduct both ex vivo and in vivo studies that include the full system of biomechanics."

May 07, 2026

AFIT Faculty Fellowship

Professor Wesley Marrero was selected for an Operations Research & Data Science Faculty Fellowship at the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT). His appointment will focus on fundamental research in sequential decision-making with applications at the DoD. The overall goal is to develop decision-support techniques that account for noncompliance with AI-driven recommendations. "By recognizing that optimal solutions may not always be adopted in practice, this work will help establish a basis for operationally-acceptable automated decision-support throughout the Air Force and Department of Defense," said Marrero.

May 07, 2026

3D Printing Thermoelectric Materials

Yehalah Fernando '26 won 1st place at the EE Just Program Research Science Fair for her poster presentation about her work in Yan Li's lab in collaboration with PhD students Ya Tang and Mingzhao Li. "My honors thesis research is on 3D printing thermoelectric materials using the direct ink writing method, which would significantly change the manufacturing process when optimized," said Fernando.

Apr 23, 2026

Can Oxygen Heal Tendons?

PhD candidate Afton Limberg attended this year's Orthopaedic Research Society (ORS) Annual Meeting in Charlotte, NC, where she was chosen as a finalist in the Tendon Section Elevator Pitch Competition. Her pitch was titled, "Can Oxygen Heal Tendons? Investigating Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy for Tendon Repair." Limberg also presented her poster, "Hyperoxia-Driven Modulation of Tendon Healing: Insights from In Vitro and In Vivo Models," based on her PhD research thesis.

Apr 16, 2026

Revolutionizing Computing Hardware

Professor Jifeng Liu authored "Atomic Ordering as a New Degree of Freedom for Semiconductor Device Engineering" published in Computer. The paper makes the case for engineering the atomic neighborhood in semiconductor alloys as a way to "leap beyond CMOS" for a new generation of computing hardware. "It is my great honor to introduce our latest research on harnessing atomic ordering in semiconductors to the computer science community. As Jensen Huang pointed out, 'the next wave of AI is physical AI,' and hardware revolutions will play a critical role there," said Liu.

Apr 09, 2026

Top Influencer in AI Energy

Professor Junbo Zhao earned the Top Influencers in AI Energy Award at the AI x Energy Summit in San Diego for his "outstanding leadership and influence" in advancing research in AI energy-related fields.

Headshots of the four Dartmouth-affiliated authors.

Mar 26, 2026

Custom Crystallization for Flexible Transparent Electronics

PhD students Samuel Ong and Simon Agnew '22, Md Saifur Rahman Th'25, and Professor Will Scheideler—with NIST physicist Lee Richter—co-authored "Tailoring Solid Phase Crystallization for Tunable Electronic Transport in Liquid Metal Printed 2D Oxides" published in Advanced Materials Technologies. The study showed highly-aligned, single-orientation grains which yield high-mobility devices, outperforming almost all other vacuum-free metal-oxide semiconductors reported to date. "We've always seen unique grain morphologies in our liquid metal printed metal oxides, so we probed the solid phase crystallization through highly-sensitive x-ray scattering techniques thanks to our collaborator, Dr. Richter. These results mark a critical step towards scalable manufacturing of transparent, high-performance electronics for next-generation flexible displays and sensors," said Ong.

Amritha Anup holds a silk cryogel next to a silk-spun cocoon.

Mar 26, 2026

Engineering Silk for the Bone-Tendon Interface

PhD candidates Amritha Anup (first-author, pictured) and Afton Limberg, Mika Bok '27, and Professor Katie Hixon co-authored "Silk cryogel and electrospun scaffold characterization for bone-tendon interface applications" published in Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology. In this work, tissue engineered silk cryogels and electrospun fibers were combined to model aspects of the mechanical, structural, and biochemical gradients found at the bone-tendon interface. "Injuries to the hard-soft tissue interfaces, such as the bone-tendon interface, affect approximately 32 million people in the US annually. Limitations in surgical repair and the natural healing process emphasizes the need for tissue engineering approaches that restore tissue continuity while supporting the spatial heterogeneity of the native bone-tendon insertion," said Anup.

Ian Baker poses while accepting the Sherby Award

Mar 26, 2026

Award for Alloys

Professor Ian Baker was awarded the Oleg D. Sherby Award at last week's annual meeting of The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society (TMS) in San Diego. The award was for "contributions to understanding the elevated temperature behavior and processing of metallic alloys as well as snow and ice using advanced characterization methods." "I very much appreciate receiving the Oleg Sherby Award from TMS in recognition of my work on elevated temperature mechanical properties. I joined TMS in 1983 and consider it a key institution for materials research both in the US and worldwide," said Baker.

Mar 19, 2026

Early Detection of Hidden Internal Bleeding

Professors Ryan Halter, Jonathan Elliott, Vikrant Vaze, and Ethan Murphy—with Geisel Professor Norman Paradis—were issued a US patent for "System and method to detect the presence and progression of diseases characterized by systemic changes in the state of the vasculature." The invention uses a novel technique to obtain multiple tissue measurements which are then "transformed by a multivariate algorithm to outputs that convey the diagnostic and prognostic risk of the disease of interest," according to the patent. "We show that by effectively combining signals from multiple sensors using advanced machine learning algorithms, we can save lives through early detection of hidden internal bleeding," said Vaze.

Mar 12, 2026

New Design Strategy for Solid-State Batteries

PhD students Baiheng Li and Huilin Qing, Research Associate Peiyu Wang, and professors Ian Baker and Weiyang "Fiona" Li co-authored "Highly Stable Quasi-Solid-State Sodium Batteries via Facile Grain Boundary Engineering" published in ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces. "This work improves the performance of solid-state batteries by employing a novel and scalable fabrication method for the electrolyte, and paves the way for safer and cheaper next-generation energy storage solutions," said Baiheng.

Headshots of Zequn Chen and Wesley Marrero

Mar 12, 2026

Fair AI and Optimization in Healthcare

PhD student Zequn "Vincent" Chen and Professor Wesley Marrero co-authored "A survey on optimization and machine learning-based fair decision making in healthcare" published in Health Care Management Science. The review examines how fair AI and mathematical optimization can improve areas like patient scheduling, disease diagnosis, and treatment recommendations. It identifies potential sources of bias in existing literature, classifies different bias mitigation strategies, and evaluates fairness metrics that help verify whether outcomes are equivalent for privileged and unprivileged groups. "By analyzing the trade-offs of each method, this research facilitates more informed and transparent decision-making in health care," said Marrero.