Current Students
Students currently in the Materials Science and Engineering PhD program are listed below, along with their advisor/co-advisor(s) and a brief description of their project, as it's confirmed.
Angela Abarca-Perez
- Project Title:
- Design and synthesis of catalytic membranes for enhanced drinking water treatment
- Department:
- Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences
- Advisor(s):
Kyle Doudrick, Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences
- Interdisciplinary Mentor(s):
William Phillip, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
- Website
Faraj Al-Badani
- Project Title:
- Phyllosilicate clays as new gas sensing materials
- Department:
- Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
- Advisor(s):
Nosang Myung, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
- Interdisciplinary Mentor(s):
Yamil Colon, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Grace Arntz-Johnson
- Project Title:
- Crystallography of neptunium-based metal-organic frameworks and peroxide nanoclusters
- Department:
- Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences
- Advisor(s):
Peter Burns, Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences
- Interdisciplinary Mentor(s):
Allen Oliver, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Kareem Asham
- Department:
- Chemistry and Biochemistry
Sara Bey
- Project Title:
- Three-dimensional chalcogenide materials for next generation electronic devices
- Department:
- Physics and Astronomy
- Advisor(s):
Badih Assaf, Physics and Astronomy
- Interdisciplinary Mentor(s):
Chris Hinkle, Electrical Engineering
Linda Biondelli
- Advisor(s):
Ken Kuno, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Zhongyu Cheng
- Project Title:
- Low-temperature, non-thermal plasma jet treatment of semi-conductive thin films utilizing machine learning optimization methods
- Department:
- Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
- Advisor(s):
David Go, Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
- Interdisciplinary Mentor(s):
Alex Dowling, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Ethan Chu
- Department:
- Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
- Advisor(s):
Stanislav Gordeyev, Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Piyush Deshpande
- Project Title:
- Engineering all-solid metal-sulfur batteries
- Department:
- Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
- Advisor(s):
Jennifer Schaefer, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
- Interdisciplinary Mentor(s):
Casey O'Brien, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Yang Ding
- Project Title:
- Toward laser cooling using lead halide perovskite nanocrystals
- Department:
- Chemistry and Biochemistry
- Advisor(s):
Ken Kuno, Chemistry and Biochemistry
- Interdisciplinary Mentor(s):
- Prashant Kamat, Chemistry and Biochemistry
- Adam Jaffe, Chemistry and Biochemistry
- Google Scholar
Greg Durling
- Project Title:
- Photoswitchable ionic liquids: Light mediated directional solvent extraction
- Department:
- Chemistry and Biochemistry
- Advisor(s):
Brandon Ashfeld, Chemistry and Biochemistry
- Interdisciplinary Mentor(s):
Tengfei Luo, Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
- Google Scholar
Sushrut Ghonge
- Project Title:
- Efficient upconversion and superfluorescence in cesium lead halide perovskite nanocrystals
- Department:
- Physics and Astronomy
- Advisor(s):
Boldizsar Janko, Physics and Astronomy
- Interdisciplinary Mentor(s):
Ken Kuno, Chemistry and Biochemistry
- Website
Bikram Ghosh
- Department:
- Chemistry and Biochemistry
- Advisor(s):
- Greg Hartland, Chemistry and Biochemistry
- Prashant Kamat, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Irina Gushchina
- Project Title:
- Size- and excitation intensity-dependent terminal stoichiometries for halide photosegregation in CsPb(I0.5Br0.5)3 perovskite nanocrystals
- Department:
- Chemistry and Biochemistry
- Advisor(s):
Ken Kuno, Chemistry and Biochemistry
- Interdisciplinary Mentor(s):
Alexander Mukasyan, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Logan Hennes
- Department:
- Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
- Advisor(s):
Jonathan Whitmer, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Grayson Huldin
- Project Title:
- Combining membranes with aptamer based electrochemical biosensors to fabricate next-generation ultrasensitive biosensors
- Department:
- Chemistry and Biochemistry
- Advisor(s):
Kaiyu Fu, Chemistry and Biochemistry
- Interdisciplinary Mentor(s):
Merlin Bruening, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Kristyna Hyblova
- Project Title:
- Exploring the role of defects on quantum emitters in hexagonal boron nitride using atomic force microscopy
- Department:
- Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
- Advisor(s):
Matt Rosenberger, Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
- Interdisciplinary Mentor(s):
Anthony Hoffman, Electrical Engineering
Jizhou Jiang
- Project Title:
- Monitoring and controlling the growth of molecular layer-by-layer assembled polyamide thin films
- Department:
- Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
- Advisor(s):
Jennifer Schaefer, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
- Interdisciplinary Mentor(s):
Bryan Paulsen, Northwestern
Parham Keshavarzi
- Department:
- Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
- Advisor(s):
Svetlana Neretina, Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Kirill Kniazev
- Project Title:
- Infrared photothermal heterodyne imaging for the characterization of micro- and nanoplastic environmental contaminants
- Department:
- Chemistry and Biochemistry
- Advisor(s):
Ken Kuno, Chemistry and Biochemistry
- Interdisciplinary Mentor(s):
Kyle Doudrick, Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences
Jessica Komla
- Department:
- Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
- Advisor(s):
Merlin Bruening, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Justin Krantz
- Project Title:
- Optical design and process monitoring of laser powder bed fusion additive manufacturing
- Department:
- Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
- Advisor(s):
Ed Kinzel, Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
- Interdisciplinary Mentor(s):
Robert Landers, Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Zachary Lawson
- Project Title:
- The development of fabrication and synthesis protocols to produce substrate-immobilized plasmonic nanomaterials
- Department:
- Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
- Advisor(s):
Svetlana Neretina, Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
- Interdisciplinary Mentor(s):
Alan Seabaugh, Electrical Engineering
Wei-Kuo Li
- Project Title:
- Harnessing strong light-matter interactions in organic semiconductor materials
- Department:
- Chemistry and Biochemistry
- Advisor(s):
Hsing-Ta Chen, Chemistry and Biochemistry
- Interdisciplinary Mentor(s):
Yi-Ting Hsu, Physics and Astronomy
Lan Li
- Project Title:
- Radiographic monitoring of photopolymerized hydrogel scaffolds with methacrylate-modified gold nanoparticles
- Department:
- Bioengineering
- Advisor(s):
Ryan Roeder, Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, and Bioengineering
- Interdisciplinary Mentor(s):
Vahid Serpooshan, Georgia Tech
Shih-Chuan Lien
- Project Title:
- Machine-learning assisted material search and design of topological crystalline superconductors
- Department:
- Physics and Astronomy
- Advisor(s):
- Yi-Ting Hsu, Physics and Astronomy
- Interdisciplinary Mentor(s):
- Meng Jiang, Computer Science and Engineering
Tiago Migliati Zanon
- Department:
- Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
- Advisor(s):
Yichun Wang, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Tye Milazzo
- Department:
- Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
- Advisor(s):
Tengfei Luo, Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Joshua Morales Campos
- Project Title:
- Isolation of catalytically relevant sites in 2D extended solids through atom-transfer/exchange reactions
- Department:
- Chemistry and Biochemistry
- Advisor(s):
Adam Jaffe, Chemistry and Biochemistry
- Interdisciplinary Mentor(s):
Jason Hicks, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Jideofor Odoeze
- Project Title:
- Performance and reliability of deep-etched high-index-contrast ridge waveguide lasers
- Department:
- Electrical Engineering
- Advisor(s):
Doug Hall, Electrical Engineering
- Interdisciplinary Mentor(s):
- Sylwia Ptasinska, Physicis and Astronomy
- Ken Kuno, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Benjamin Ogueri
- Project Title:
- Investigating oxidation prevention for copper nanoparticles during the plasma-liquid interface (PLI) synthesis srocess
- Department:
- Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
- Advisor(s):
- David Go, Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
- David Bartels, Notre Dame Radiation Laboratory
Alexander Padilla
- Project Title:
- Nitrogen atom transfer: A promising method for tuning metal oxyhalides
- Department:
- Chemistry and Biochemistry
- Advisor(s):
Adam Jaffe, Chemistry and Biochemistry
- Interdisciplinary Mentor(s):
Jason Hicks, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Sanjoy Saha
- Project Title:
- Dynamic hydrogels for controlling lymphatic differentiation and morphogenesis
- Department:
- Bioengineering
- Advisor(s):
Donny Hanjaya-Putra, Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, and Bioengineering
- Interdisciplinary Mentor(s):
Matt Webber, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Connor Schmidt
- Department:
- Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
- Advisor(s):
Matt Webber, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Nileema Sharma
- Project Title:
- Tunning charge orders in Kagome metals Cs1-xKxV3Sb5 via alkali substitution
- Department:
- Physics and Astronomy
- Advisor(s):
Xiaolong Liu, Physics and Astronomy
- Interdisciplinary Mentor(s):
Stephen Wilson, UC Santa Barbara
Muhammad Sohail
- Project Title:
- Molecular spatial control over 1D chalcogen polymers
- Department:
- Chemistry and Biochemistry
- Advisor(s):
Emily Tsui, Chemistry and Biochemistry
- Interdisciplinary Mentor(s):
Jennifer Schaefer, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Runze Tang
- Department:
- Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
- Advisor(s):
Svetlana Neretina, Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Matthew Toole
- Project Title:
- Machine-learning-enhanced quantum materials visualization and discovery
- Department:
- Physics and Astronomy
- Advisor(s):
Xiaolong Liu, Physics and Astronomy
- Interdisciplinary Mentor(s):
Xiangliang Zhang, Computer Science and Engineering
Vadim Trepalin
- Department:
- Chemistry and Biochemistry
- Advisor(s):
Ken Kuno, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Walker Tuff
- Project Title:
- Fabricating complex substrate-bound nanostructures through the incorporation of sacrificial metals and metal oxides
- Department:
- Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
- Advisor(s):
Svetlana Neretina, Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
- Interdisciplinary Mentor(s):
Jon Camden, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Kuixing Wang
- Department:
- Chemistry and Biochemistry
- Advisor(s):
Matt Webber, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
- Google Scholar
Hezekiah Williams
- Department:
- Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
- Advisor(s):
Ryan Roeder, Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Yucheng Yang
- Project Title:
- Nanoscale characterization and control of strain and defects in two-dimensional materials for optimized quantum emitters
- Department:
- Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
- Advisor(s):
Matt Rosenberger, Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
- Interdisciplinary Mentor(s):
Anthony Hoffman, Electrical Engineering
Frances Zengotita
- Project Title:
- Influence of iron oxide nanoparticle crystallite size and surface defects on the sorption and reduction of plutonium
- Department:
- Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences
- Advisor(s):
Amy Hixon, Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences
- Interdisciplinary Mentor(s):
Kyle Doudrick, Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences
Hanfeng Zhang
- Project Title:
- Materials informatics of liquidous materials for water desalination applications
- Department:
- Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
- Advisor(s):
Tengfei Luo, Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
- Interdisciplinary Mentor(s):
- Ed Maginn, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
- Brandon Ashfeld, Chemistry and Biochemistry