Driving the innovation of the Institute for Matter and Systems (IMS) are the exceptional employees in and out of the core facilities. Mengkun Tian, a senior research scientist in the Materials Characterization Facility (MCF) and recipient of a 2026 IMS Employee Excellence Award, has contributed to that innovation for eight years, but his passion for matter and systems begins much earlier.

Elementary school is often where young minds discover new curiosities. For Tian, that curiosity revolved around materials.

“I was fascinated by how relatively common elements like aluminum and oxygen could form something as precious as ruby and sapphire—it almost seemed like alchemy to me,” Tian said, “and it inspired my curiosity for crystal structures, eventually leading me toward materials science.”

His early fascinations continued to grow as his academic career evolved. While pursuing his doctorate at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tian organized weekend study seminars that brought together other doctoral students in materials science to share diverse knowledge of various fields.

“The idea was that even if someone had no previous experience in a particular area, we would start from the fundamentals and try to understand how the field worked,” Tian said. “It greatly broadened our scientific perspectives and gave us a much deeper appreciation for research outside our own specialties.”

In 2018, Tian joined IMS as a research scientist in MCF. Although his research initially focused on individual projects, his lab environment gradually came to reflect the collaborative environment he helped curate at the University of Tennessee. However, unlike his weekend study seminars, IMS enabled Tian to mentor students, which he considers the most rewarding part of his work.

“I did not have many opportunities to mentor students during my Ph.D. and postdoctoral work, but IMS changed that,” Tian said. “Because we work with such a large and diverse user community, students often come to us with research problems for which there is no established experimental procedure. Instead of simply teaching them how to operate an instrument, we often develop new techniques together.”

While helping students transform ideas into impactful innovations, Tian also advances his own innovations. Currently, his work focuses on AI applications in electron microscopy, helping turn hours of manual image analysis into an efficient, more reproducible workflow.

Outside of MCF, he continues to embed his passion in those around him, building community and inspiring the next generation of scientists.

News Contact