Dr. Suzana Filipović (Senior Research Associate) in front of the Materials Research Center, Missouri S&T, Rolla, USA
Between September 2022 and September 2024, Dr. Suzana Filipović conducted postdoctoral research at the Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T), Rolla, USA. During this period, she worked on the project Spinodal Strengthening of High-Entropy Ceramics, under the guidance of Prof. Dr. Stefano Curtarolo, Duke University, North Carolina, USA (Office of Naval Research, Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI), 2022–2024, project no. N00014-21-1-2515) and collaborated on the Hypersonic Materials Manufacturing Program led by Dr. Scott McCormack, University of California, Davis, USA.
UHTC Group of the Materials Research Center, Missouri S&T, Rolla, USA
She conducted research with the Ultra-High Temperature Ceramics (UHTC) Research Group, led by Prof. Dr. William Fahrenholtz and Prof. Dr. Gregory Hilmas. She was involved in several research tasks. One focused on developing high-entropy boride ceramics for ultra-high temperatures, aiming to achieve materials with extreme hardness and correlate their mechanical properties with structure and morphology. She also worked on the synthesis, sintering, and characterization of composite materials based on dual-phase high-entropy carbides and borides. Another research direction involved studying the diffusion kinetics of Zr0.2W0.8B5 and W0.8Zr0.2B2 when used as diffusion couples.
Her project activities also included training in using various instruments for the processing and characterization of ultra-high temperature ceramics. She used various types of high-temperature furnaces, a spark plasma sintering system, and a hot pressing device. Additionally, she gained proficiency in using scanning electron microscopes, X-ray diffractometers, Raman and UV/VIS spectrophotometers, optical microscopes, and instruments for mechanical, thermal, and electrical characterization.
Dr. Suzana Filipović, Senior Research Associate at ITS SASA, at the Missouri University of Science and Technology, USA
During his time at the Missouri University of Science and Technology, she had the opportunity to meet and collaborate with professors and scientists from around the world. Apart from her colleagues from ITS SASA, Dr. Darko Kosanović and Dr. Nina Obradović, she collaborated with members of the UHTC group, including the Director of the Materials Research Center, Prof. Dr. William Fahrenholtz, Prof. Dr. Gregory E. Hilmas, Dr. Jeremy Lee Watts, Dr. Paul M. Brune, and others.
She also worked with Prof. Dr. Stefano Curtarolo, Duke University, Prof. Dr. Douglas Wolfe and Prof. Dr. Jon-Paul Maria, Pennsylvania State University, and Prof. Dr. Donald Brenner, North Carolina State University, as well as with Dr. Eva Zurek, State University of New York at Buffalo.
Her research findings were presented at the 48th International Conference and Exposition on Advanced Ceramics and Composites, held in January 2024 in Daytona Beach, Florida, and at the Ultra-High Temperature Ceramics Conference in April 2024 in Messina, Italy.
48th International Conference and Exposition on Advanced Ceramics and Composites, Daytona Beach, Florida, USA: Dr. Nina Obradović, Principal Research Fellow at ITS SASA and President of the Serbian Ceramic Society, and Dr. Suzana Filipović
Ultra-High Temperature Ceramics Conference, Messina, Italy: Dr. Nina Obradović; Prof. Dr. William Fahrenholtz, Director of the Materials Research Center at Missouri S&T; Dr. Laura Silvestroni from the Institute of Science, Technology, and Sustainability of Ceramics, Italy; Dr. Suzana Filipović; and Steven Smith from Missouri S&T
Her research results were published in several scientific journals, including a notable paper in Nature: Divilov, S., Eckert, H., Hicks, D. et al. Disordered enthalpy–entropy descriptor for high-entropy ceramics discovery. Nature 625, 66–73 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06786-y
