My research interests lie in the synthesis and characterization of new, improved materials for both clean energy applications and for electronic materials such as piezoelectrics and multiferroics, with a focus on using environmentally benign materials with low toxicity. The development of new advanced functional materials with both high performance and a low energy impact is one of the most important challenges in the scientific community today as the current energy economy, based on fossil fuels is at serious risk. These goals will be achieved through studying the structure-property relationships of advanced materials. By taking materials and definitively characterizing their complex structural features it is possible to gain insight into what drives its behavior. The key aspect of the relationship between the structure of a material and its properties is often overlooked, but through a complete understanding of the structure-property relationships of known structures, it will be possible to rationally design and tune new materials with the desired properties.