Materials Science and Engineering (MatSE) and Materials Research Laboratory (MRL) Professor Pascal Bellon studies materials used for nuclear applications and is making a high energy impact on the world of materials science. However, despite being a long-term faculty member at UIUC, he originally didn’t intend to go into academia. In fact, he didn’t even intend to study materials science.
Bellon earned an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from the École Supérieure d'Électricité in France in 1984. While at first interested in electrical engineering, he says he was “more interested in the materials used for electronic components.” He then did a master’s degree in materials science, followed by his PhD in materials science from France’s Paris 6 university in 1989. Bellon first worked in the MatSE department at UIUC as a post-doctoral fellow in 1993-1994, working with Professor Robert S. Averback. He then worked at the Physical Metallurgy Research Section (SRMP) at the CEA Center for Research at Saclay, France until 1996 when he joined the faculty at UIUC.
“I was really driven by and interested in the research opportunities that the US system had to offer, and in particular, the University of Illinois and the MatSE department,” Bellon said. “What I love about academia is that you can evolve, transform, or just redefine yourself as often as you want.”
Modeling, Theory, Experimentation…and Repeat
For Bellon, materials science is at “the intersection of many different disciplines like physics, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, chemistry and even biology in some ways. We can tap into those different disciplines and bring certain ideas, tools, or perspectives to the problems we work on. I really enjoy this multidisciplinary field and being able to combine different perspectives. It’s a very rich field.”
Most of the time, we use materials that are not in an equilibrium state and the properties of those materials are related to how they are processed and how they respond to their environment. For example, one focus of the Bellon research group is on materials used for nuclear applications, in which the materials are exposed to irradiation by energetic particles. Metallic materials in a nuclear reactor can start forming voids- like “Swiss cheese” as Bellon likes to say- and those voids result in swelling. It is very problematic to design optimized materials systems for which some components could expand by 5-10%. Furthermore, the mechanical properties of irradiated materials can degrade over time. Bellon says, “In our research, we explore novel alloying strategies to design alloys with increased radiation resistance, specifically by using radiation itself to generate self-healing microstructures.”
Another focus is on the “wear and tear” of materials, such as plastic deformation. Bellon explains “We often associate wear and tear with the degradation of performance, but at the same time, we want to anticipate those changes and design materials that would be more resistant to irradiation, plastic deformation or other external stimuli.” Designing materials to be more resilient, with better resistance and endurance, is an indirect way to improve sustainability: when materials have longer lifespans, replacements are less frequent, less material is needed in the long run, and less energy is spent processing, fabricating, and recycling it.
In general, Bellon says his research starts from observations and those observations lead his team to develop theories and models. The models and theories suggest experiments or ways to implement those ideas. “We tend to go back and forth between modeling, theory, and experimentation, and there’s always something new we are uncovering,” Bellon says.
Bellon would like for prospective students of this field to know that it is “a very rich and evolving discipline. There is always something new to renew yourself, change what you want to study and learn or the techniques you would apply to the models that we implement and develop.”
Sometimes the Teacher, Always a Student
At UIUC, Bellon teaches a variety of materials science courses- something he is passionate about. “I really enjoy teaching,” he says. “It takes time, it’s challenging, and it has evolved over the years. Nevertheless, I like to connect with the students to see how they think about problems, projects, and ideas, and help them learn for themselves what they want to do and what they want to learn.” As a testament to his passion for teaching, Bellon has recently received the Provost’s Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching award.
In addition to teaching students, Bellon is also passionate about mentoring junior faculty. He has been involved with The Grainger College of Engineering’s Academy for Excellence in Engineering Education (AE3). AE3 offers programs for new faculty that promote high-quality teaching, and acts as a catalyst for innovation in education, especially at the undergraduate level. Bellon recognizes the need for such a program, since no such opportunity was available to him when he was starting out. He explains, “When we have new faculty in the College, they are encouraged to join that structure for a year. Every so often, I go and observe new faculty and give them feedback. Learning how to teach is a discipline in itself and it’s difficult.”
Bellon has also been the chair of a campus promotion and tenure committee and as efforts have been made to incorporate EDI (equity, diversity, and inclusion) perspectives into promotion and tenure, he has worked to educate himself in that area. After attending campus seminars on EDI topics, he became a trainer for his colleagues and unit heads to help them become more aware of bias issues when they’re reading external letters and evaluations. He says, “I love learning, and one way to learn is to put yourself in a position where you have to teach other people. And it’s a way to become more comfortable and interested in these questions to see how you can contribute.”
(3.5) Million Dollar Baby
Bellon is particularly proud of helping to secure funding for the state-of-the-art Atom Probe (with a $3.5 million price-tag), now located in the MRL. For a long time, MRL didn’t have this particular instrument, and because of its hefty price tag, researchers had to rely on outside collaborations with colleagues at other institutions. Bellon was part of a team that secured funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to purchase the instrument. The Atom Probe is crucial for characterizing materials quickly and Bellon notes that “it has been well-used by a broad community of faculty at the MRL.”
To read more about Bellon’s research, check out his group webpage.