10/29/2026
Two Materials Research Laboratory faculty members were elected Fellows of the American Physical Society. Professor Randy Ewoldt of the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering and Professor Stephan Link of the Department of Chemistry join more than 150 other researchers who were elected to the 2026 cohort, an honor reserved each year for no more than half a percent of the society's nonstudent members.
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Two Materials Research Laboratory faculty members were elected Fellows of the American Physical Society. Professor Randy Ewoldt of the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering and Professor Stephan Link of the Department of Chemistry join more than 150 other researchers who were elected to the 2026 cohort, an honor reserved each year for no more than half a percent of the society's nonstudent members.
APS Fellowship recognizes society members for outstanding contributions to physics through research, teaching, applications of physics, or service. APS, which represents more than 50,000 members in academia, national laboratories and industry, announced its 2026 class on Oct. 9.
Ewoldt, the Alexander Rankin Professor of Mechanical Science and Engineering, was elected through the Division of Fluid Dynamics “for pioneering contributions to nonlinear rheology and complex-fluid mechanics.”
“I’m honored to be elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society. My research connects physics with mathematics and engineering to understand how complex materials flow and deform. Our Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering has been a wonderful place to pursue those connections,” said Ewoldt.
Ewoldt and his research group bridge fluid mechanics, rheology, and soft matter physics to connect fundamental understanding of complex materials with new possibilities for engineering design. Their work combines experiments and mathematical modeling. Recent motivating applications include direct-write 3D printing, high-throughput material characterization, wildland fire suppressants, bioinspired ultrasoft gelling materials, and flow batteries for grid-scale energy storage.
Link, the Charles W. and Genevieve M. Walton Endowed Professor of Chemistry, was elected through the Division of Chemical Physics for “outstanding accomplishments in the steady-state and time-resolved spectroscopy and microscopy of nanostructures, relating the radiative, non-radiative, chiroptical, and mechanical properties of individual and coupled plasmonic nanoparticles to their morphology and defects.”
“It’s really a special honor to be recognized as APS Fellow by my peers in the chemical physics community,” said Link.
Link specializes in plasmonic nanoparticles, metallic particles with abilities to scatter and absorb light that make them useful for applications from solar cells to imaging to cancer treatment, and techniques for seeing and studying them. His research group's overall goals are understanding the physical principles governing the interactions among plasmonic nanoparticles and their molecular environment, as well as determining emerging collective optical properties in the presence of defects. His group's research interests include photophysics and photochemistry of nanomaterials, plasmonics, solar energy conversion, single-particle imaging, and ultrafast spectroscopy.
Randy Ewoldt is an Illinois Grainger Engineering professor in the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering. He is affiliated with the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology and the Materials Research Laboratory. He holds the Alexander Rankin Professor of Mechanical Science and Engineering appointment.
Stephan Link is an University of Illinois Urbana Champaign professor in the Department of Chemistry within the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. He is affiliated with the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering and the Materials Research Laboratory. He holds the Charles W. and Genevieve M. Walton Endowed Professor of Chemistry appointment.