Christina “Tina” Rost ’09, M’12, currently an assistant professor of materials science at Virginia Tech, has received the highly competitive Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award from the National Science Foundation. The award (NSF #2440979, April 2025) recognizes her pioneering project, “Investigating Inversion in High Entropy Oxide Spinels—Unraveling Structural Dynamics for Advanced Materials Design.”
Christina Rost
Rost earned her PhD in materials science and engineering from North Carolina State University in 2016. Her research centers on a novel class of ceramics called high-entropy oxides (HEOs), which are formed by mixing multiple metal elements into a single, compositionally complex structure. Unlike traditional materials, the atomic-level “disorder” in HEOs is a functional advantage, offering unique and tunable magnetic and electronic behaviors. These properties make them strong candidates for cutting-edge applications in spintronics, energy storage, and advanced computing.
With this NSF CAREER Award, Rost aims to deepen the fundamental understanding of atomic inversion in HEO spinels and to leverage this knowledge to control material behavior through tailored composition and structure. Just as important, she is integrating her research into a dynamic educational initiative—developing hands-on demonstrations for K–12 students, launching a revitalized undergraduate research journal, and creating a video series to guide incoming graduate students in materials science and engineering.
“We’re exploring a new frontier in materials science by tuning cation arrangements in high-entropy oxide spinels—ceramics built from a chaotic mix of metals that reveal powerful, unconventional properties,” said Rost in a recent phone interview. “But we’re not just focused on discovery—we’re building a high-energy educational ecosystem to inspire and equip the next generation of scientists.”
Congratulations to Tina Rost on this exceptional honor and continued leadership in research and education!