Primary DLC
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
MIT Room 8-202
(617) 253-3318
Assistant
Maryann Turner
Website(s)
Areas Of Expertise
Professor Tasan is the POSCO Associate Professor of Metallurgy. He earned his B.S. and M.S. in the Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering at METU, Middle East Technical University, in Ankara, Turkey. He carried out his PhD work in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands. He then moved to Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung in Germany, where he was appointed first as a postdoc, and then as a group leader. He joined DMSE as a faculty member in 2016 and was granted tenure in 2022. Tasan was appointed the new director of the MIT Materials Research Laboratory (MRL) in March 2025. MRL is an interdisciplinary hub for materials science and engineering, supporting research in nanotechnology, quantum materials, energy storage, electronics, structural materials such as advanced metals and composites, and more. Under Tasan’s leadership, the lab aims to deepen the engagement among materials researchers across MIT and expand collaborations with industrial partners.
Professor Cemal Cem Tasan explores the boundaries of physical metallurgy, solid mechanics, and in situ microscopy to design new alloys with exceptional damage resistance. His research group focuses on developing new in situ characterization tools and methods; improving the physical understanding of transformation, deformation, and damage of micro-mechanisms in metallic materials; and designing damage-resistant microstructures and alloys.