Professor Mitra Taheri’s research group, the Dynamic Characterization Group (DCG), develops and utilizes operando/in situ techniques and evolving autonomous platforms to “see the unseen.” We use microscopy, artificial intelligence and machine learning, and synthesis/processing tools to probe structural, functional, and biological materials in extreme environments, harnessing non-equilibrium phenomena from the atomic to bulk scale. In other words, we make and break things, and watch it all happen in real time!! This leads us to new discovery and understanding of energy-producing materials, biological and medical systems, and functional and structural materials for aerospace, nuclear, quantum, and power applications.