UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Alumna Titilayo “Titi” Shodiya, deputy quality manager at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), will present the 2023 Richard E. Tressler Lecture at 3:05 p.m. Thursday, April 27, in 111 Wartik Laboratory on the Penn State University Park campus. Shodiya’s lecture is titled “Materials and Beyond.”

In her current role, Shodiya is responsible for facilitating the implementation of the NIST Quality Management System at all its locations. This supports NIST’s mission to promote U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness by advancing measurement science, standards and technology.

Before joining NIST in January 2017, Shodiya was a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. She started her postdoc in the chemistry department where she worked on epitaxial thin film growth using electrochemistry, funded by the Department of Defense and Dow Chemical. In 2016, she started working at the University of Michigan’s Energy Institute (UMEI) in the Battery Lab as a postdoc/characterization specialist. There, she worked with external industry partners to fabricate and characterize battery cells use with industry-scale devices. Also, she oversaw the characterization facilities as part of her duties.

Shodiya received her bachelor’s degree in materials science and engineering with a concentration in electronic and photonic materials and a minor in mathematics from Penn State in 2010. She received a master’s in electrical and computer engineering in 2012 and a doctorate in mechanical engineering and materials science in 2015 from Duke University.

Throughout her career, Shodiya has been an active mentor and started initiatives to encourage women and underrepresented minorities to pursue STEM degrees and careers. In support of those efforts, she co-hosts the critically acclaimed podcast Dope Labs.

The R.E. Tressler Award is named after Richard E. Tressler, an international leader in the development of high temperature materials and the former head of Penn State's Department of Materials Science and Engineering from 1991 to 2001. The award will be presented to Shodiya during the lecture. The award honors the work and contributions of Tressler.

The lecture is open to the public free of charge, and all are invited to attend.