C. Cem Tasan, the director of the Materials Research Laboratory and the POSCO Associate Professor of Metallurgy in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (DMSE), has been promoted to full professor.
“Professor Tasan is a leader in in situ mechanical characterization approaches for structural materials, especially metals and alloys,” said Polina Anikeeva, head of DMSE. “He made foundational contributions to the design of high-entropy alloys and to understanding the mechanisms of failure in structural metals.”
As speaker for DMSE’s Wulff Lecture in spring 2024, Tasan presented on the havoc tiny hydrogen atoms can cause in steel and on novel ways to repair and prevent such damage.
Tasan earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in metallurgy and materials engineering at Middle East Technical University in Turkey. He received the PhD from Eindhoven University of Technology.
He joined MIT as assistant professor in 2015 and earned tenure in 2022. In April 2025 he was named director of the Materials Research Laboratory.