Our Team | Frame Research Group

Lesley D. Frame is Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and Director of the Center for Materials Processing Data at University of Connecticut. Dr. Frame received her BS from the Department of Materials Science Engineering at MIT, and she received her MS and PhD from University of Arizona in the same field. Upon completion of her Ph.D. she held postdoctoral positions at The Arizona Research Institute for Solar Energy, and then at Cardiff University as a Fulbright Scholar conducting neutron diffraction research at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. Dr. Frame spent five years in industry at Thermatool Corp. leading product development projects, the materials characterization lab, and process improvement efforts for the tube and pipe industry. Her current research is focused on materials processing-structure-property relationships and failure analysis related to metals manufacturing processes, residual stress formation, and corrosion.

Graduate Students

M. Nabil Bhuiyan

PhD Student

Nabil joined the Frame Research Group in August 2021. His research interests include computational material modelling, grain growth analysis and microstructural evolution, residual stress & transient properties of alloys. His current research project is focused on residual stress analysis during precipitate hardening.

Matthew Carragher

PhD Student

Matthew received his undergraduate degree in 2023 in Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Connecticut. As an undergraduate researcher in the Casting and Solidification group, his work involved assisting in the design and calibration of an end chilled benchmark plate casting, as well as developing heat flow simulations for castings. Matthew joined the Frame Research Group in the summer of 2023 as a PhD student to study solidification cracking.

Matthew Caruso

PhD Student

Matthew received his undergraduate degree in Chemistry at the University of Tennessee. As an undergraduate researcher with the Larese Group, his work involved the development of a novel instrument for automated in-situ detection of Cyanobacteria using spectroscopic methods. He joined the Frame Research Group in the Fall of 2021 as a PhD student to study weld cracking and weldability.

Su-Hyeon Choe

PhD Student

Su-Hyeon graduated from the University of Ulsan, South Korea, with a BS in materials science and engineering in 2019 and an MS in the same field in 2021. As a Ph.D. student, he started working with the Frame Research Group in the fall of 2023. Since then, he has looked at ways to methods for accelerated testing in the lab to better understand how pyrrhotite will affect concrete in a shorter time span.

Auishe Pauline Corraya

PhD Student

Auishe received her undergraduate degree in Materials and Metallurgical Engineering at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology. She joined the Frame Research Group in the spring of 2024. While her undergrad research was regarding metals, she is currently working with concrete. Her research work is related to the acceleration of the deterioration of concrete samples containing reactive iron-sulfide-bearing aggregates.

Anupam Saha

PhD Student

Anupam graduated with a BS in the Materials Science and Engineering department in 2022. He joined Dr. Frame’s lab group as a PhD student in the spring of 2024 after working for several years in the Steel Manufacturing industries in his country. His interests include processing of alloys, heat treating, grain growth analysis and microstructural evolution, residual stress & transient properties of alloys. His current research revolves around uncertainty in heat treated components for aerospace applications.

Sarah Siddiqui

Master's Student

Sarah received her undergraduate degree in Materials Science and Engineering at Lehigh University. She joined the Frame Research Group in January 2024. Her current work involves characterizing embrittlement in molten salt reactor structural alloys.

Sean Small

PhD Student

Sean joined the group in June 2023 after completing his BS and MS at the University of Connecticut. His main focus of research is the corrosion behavior of additively manufactured high-strength low-alloy steel.

Bharath Krupa Teja Mekala

PhD Student

Krupa graduated with Bachelor’s degree from NIT Rourkela and Master’s degree from IIT Kharagpur, India in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering. Krupa worked in the area of metal matrix composites focusing on the improvement in their mechanical, tribological and other properties. Krupa joined Frame’s group in 2023. Since then, he has been working on corrosion of bridge steels using wet-dry cycle testing and electrochemical testing.

Kevin Zhang

PhD Student

Kevin joined the Frame Research Group in January 2019. He is studying the corrosion behaviors of metal additive manufacturing (AM) parts in aqueous environments. Primary alloys of interest include titanium alloys, stainless steels, and nickel-based superalloys (Inconel alloys).