MRS annually recognizes graduate students of exceptional ability who show promise for significant future achievement in materials research.
During the meeting, Elhebeary presented his work on investigating the stress relaxation mechanism in silicon microbeams at elevated temperatures in situ under bending, along with a novel technique for mechanical characterization of soft tissues in-vitro.
He said that a major motivation for his research has been the lack of accessible mechanical testing setups at the micro/nanoscale range for many next-generation applications.
“The temperature of many electronic components, for example, increases during operation and affects their performance and their expected lifetime. So it is urgent to address the effects of size, stress localization, and stress gradients on the failure mechanisms of electronic materials at small scales and high temperatures. We revealed the stress relaxation mechanism by implementing in situ experiments inside SEM, using microfabricated MEMS platform, followed by TEM and AFM analysis,” said Elhebeary.
Recently, said Elhebeary, the mechanical state of tissues, such as stiffness and internal forces, is emerging as new prognostics for diseases as in case of liver and lung. Diseased liver and pancreatic regions are stiffer than their normal counterparts, as is the case of most tumors. Accordingly, the characterization of tissue stiffness and coupling it to cellular behavior is crucial.
“I strongly believe that we need to develop the right tools if we are to understand and predict the behavior of both hard metals and soft tissues. By merging micro-fabrication and classical theories of capillarity we came up with new functionalities, namely self-assembly and self-alignment of tissues on a sensor stage. It provides a time lapse measure of both force and stiffness and allows simultaneous inspection of the microstructure of the tissue in situ, thus linking tissue biophysics with pathophysiology,” he said.
Elhebeary earned his BS and MSc. in mechanical engineering from Cairo University, and conducts research under the supervision of Professor Taher Saif.
“I am deeply honored to receive this prestigious award. I would like to thank the graduate student awards committee at MRS for choosing me, and my advisor for his continuous support and guidance.”