Materials science has a plethora of long-standing problems that remain unsolved because we lack the tools to answer them. Advances in laser, X-ray, and computing technology now enable many of these challenges to be attainable — for those ready to develop the tools to revisit them.

We use and develop imaging methods in tandem with the necessary computer-vision methods to take a closer look at how materials respond at the “in-between” scales (a.k.a. the mesoscale). In her previous work, Leora developed an ultrafast microscope using a Fabry-Perot cavity to resolve how converging shock waves drive materials faster than they can actually fail to states beyond their yield stresses. More recently, Leora developed the time-resolved version of dark-field X-ray microscopy, and has used it to directly image dislocation dynamics over milisecond to femtosecond timescales.

Our group is now ready to build on these and other new techniques to establish the cutting-edge science now attainable with today’s technology.