Tunde Alawode is a PhD Candidate at MIT. He has masters degrees in Material Science and in Mechanical Engineering, both from MIT. His research is focused on using first-principles computations to design novel materials to address globally important issues: environmental protection, energy conservation and next-generation memory devices, by an extensive study of material interfaces. Trends in system complexity and component scale in each of these areas are pushing the role of interfaces — the boundaries between different materials or phases — to the forefront in an increasing number of practical applications. He develops fundamental understanding of interfaces and their effects on functionality as a means to the discovery of novel physics and chemistry, as well as the potential for providing creative new tools for tailoring materials behavior from the nanoscale all the way up to the macroscale. Outside of research, he runs an edtech startup.