Interested in joining the team? Send your CV and research interests to Megan at mbutala (at) ufl.edu.
Megan M. Butala, PhD
Assistant Professor of Materials Science & Engineering
mbutala (at) ufl.edu
Megan grew up in southern California and completed her B.S. in Materials Engineering at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. She did her graduate work at University of California, Santa Barbara with Prof. Ram Seshadri, completing her Ph.D. in Materials in 2017. She then spent two years at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Maryland as a National Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow, and joined the MSE family at UF in November 2019.
Between working with the awesome group members, Megan likes to cook, lift heavy things, play outside, and learn to keep plants alive.
Graduate Students
Danielle Alverson
dalverson (at) ufl.edu
Danielle has a Bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Arkansas (2020) and came back to UF as a graduate student following a summer of computational research experience in the MSE department in 2019.
When she’s not mastering the fundamentals of X-ray scattering and designing experiments, she likes to run, play guitar, and listen to music.
Kausturi Parui
kausturiparui (at) ufl.edu
Kausturi has her Bachelors and Masters in Chemistry and began her time at UF in the Chemistry department. In 2020, her interest in energy technology brought her and her analytical interests to the Butala group where she is focusing on new battery electrode materials.
When she’s not keeping an eye on all of the engineers, she can be found sipping iced coffee and watching thrillers!
John Langhout
johnlanghout (at) ufl.edu
John has a Bachelors degree in Materials Science and Engineering from UF, where he’s returned as a graduate student in MSE in 2021. His research focus spans is processing-structure-property relationships in new electrode materials, as well as phase-change materials. This will involve X-ray characterization, including scattering and spectroscopy.
When not poring over X-ray data spaghetti, John enjoys cooking, digital art, and collecting, listening to, and playing music.
Undergraduate Students
Laurence Barnes (ChE, UF)
October 2021 to present
COLTON GINTER (MSE, UF)
February 2022 to present — Senior Research
NSF GRFP Recipient in 2023!
NICHOLAS WILLIAMS (MSE, UF)
February 2022 to present — Senior Research
Andrew Steiner (MSE, UF)
September 2022 to present
Steph Meikle (MSE, UF)
September 2022 to present
Pablo Martinez-Reyes (MSE, UF)
September 2022 to present — Senior Research
Talianna Ulloa (CISE, UF)
October 2022 to present
Previous Masters and Undergraduate Students
- Runze Li (UF, M.S. Materials Science and Engineering, 2021) – Now at University of Maryland, College Park
- Alexander Lee (UF, B.S. Materials Science and Engineering, 2022) – Now at Tesla
- Bennett Smith (UF, B.S. Materials Science and Engineering, 2022) – Now at Carbon
- Leah Buch (UF, B.S. Materials Science and Engineering, 2022) – Now at UC Berkeley
- Stefania Montero (UF, B.S. Materials Science and Engineering, 2022)
- Shornam Gandhi (UF, MSE student)
- Bonnie Stolt (Michigan State University, Summer Undergraduate Researcher) – Heading to GTech as PhD student Fall 2023
- A.J. Manibusan (UF, MSE student)