Nina Balke

Nina Balke is an Associate Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at NC State University’s College of Engineering. She holds a Ph.D. in Materials Sciences from the Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany (2006). Before joining NCSU in 2021, she was a Research Staff Member at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (2010–2021) and a Feodor-Lynen Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley (2006–2010). Her research focuses on discovering nanoscale materials functionality driven by electric fields and potentials, particularly in energy and information technologies. Key areas include:

• Ferroelectricity and Polar Materials: Investigating polarization control, phase transitions, and electromechanical coupling in 2D materials like CuInP2S6 and BaTiO3.
• Energy Storage Materials: Probing ion insertion mechanisms in WO3, MXene, and Li-ion battery materials using operando atomic force microscopy (AFM).
• Electrochemical Interfaces: Studying solid-liquid interactions in ionic liquids and electrode/electrolyte systems to understand degradation and mechanical response.

Her group develops advanced AFM techniques to quantify nanoscale properties such as piezoelectric constants and strain-current coupling. Recent work explores structural water effects in tungsten oxides and defect-driven phase transitions in ferroelectrics. Balke’s contributions span over 150 publications, with recent highlights in ACS Nano, Applied Physics Letters, and Advanced Energy Materials.

• Awards: None explicitly stated in provided texts.
• Grants/Projects: Focus on U.S. Department of Energy and NSF-funded initiatives in energy storage and nanomaterials.

Her Balke Research Group includes graduate researchers and postdocs, emphasizing interdisciplinary collaboration with theory and computational groups. Active areas include MXene-based actuators, ionotronic devices, and high-throughput AFM methodologies.