Alumni and Thesis Information

IMS Ph.D. Alumni -

Open Source Software for transparent, Reproducible, Usable by Others, and Extensible High-Throughput Molecular Similations

Madeleine Fort, Ph.D. March 2023
under the direction of Janet Macdonald (Chemistry)

Enhanced Plasmonic Upconversion in Coupled Metal-Semiconductor Nanoparticle Films

Nathan Spear, Ph.D. February 2023
under the direction of Janet Macdonald (Chemistry) & Richard Haglund (Physics)

Gaining Nanophotonic Control through Crystalline Anisotropy

Joseph Matson, Ph.D. January 2023
under the direction of Josh Caldwell (Mechanical Engineering)

Investigating Solid Electrolytes and Catalysts for Electrochemcial Ammonia Synthesis

Nicholas Hortance, Ph.D. July 2022
under the direction of David Cliffel (Chemistry)

Laser-induced single-event effects, total-ionizing-dose effects, and low-frequency noise in advanced FinFETs

Kan Li, Ph.D. June 2022
under the direction of Ronald Schrimpf (Electrical Engineering)

Open Source Software for transparent, Reproducible, Usable by Others, and Extensible High-Throughput Molecular Similations

Justin Gilmer, Ph.D. May 2022
under the direction of Clare McCabe (Chemical Engineering) & Peter Cummings (Chemical Engineering)

Novel Biohybrid Photovoltaics for Expeditionary Energy

John Michael Williams II, Ph.D. May 2022
under the direction of David Cliffel (Chemistry) & Kane Jennings (Chemical Engineering)

Electron Transfer at Biologically Modified Electrodes

Kody Wolfe, Ph.D. August 2021
under the direction of David Cliffel (Chemistry) & Kane Jennings (Chemical Engineering)

Semiclassical Simulations of Hot Electronics in Gate-All-Around Silicon MOSFETS

Mahmud Reaz, Ph.D. July 2021
under the direction of Ron Schrimpf (Electrical Engineering)

Identification of Physical Mechanisms of Radiation Effects in 3D NAND Solid-State Memories using Monte Carlo Analysis

Matthew Breeding, Ph.D. July 2021
under the direction of Robert Reed (Electrical Engineering)

Porous Silicon Optical Biosensors Towards Point-of-Care Applications

Tengfei Cao, Ph.D. May 2021
under the direction of Sharon Weiss (Electrical Engineering)

Realizing Directional, Narrowband Thermal Emission through Control of Spectral Dispersion and Strong Coupling

Joshua Ryan Nolen, Ph.D. May 2021
under the direction of Josh Caldwell (Mechanical Engineering)

Synthesis, Properties, and Applications of Functional Polymer Films

Liudmyla Prozorovska, Ph.D. May 2021
under the direction of Kane Jennings (Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering)

Porous Silicon Optical Biosensors Towards Point-of-care Applications

Tengfei Cao, Ph.D. May 2021
under the direction of Sharon Weiss (Electrical Engineering)

Acoustic Softening and Acoustic Stiffening: Modifications of Thermal Conductivity from Altered Dispersion Relations in Si and ZnO Nanostructures

Matthew Gerboth, Ph.D. October 2020
under the direction of Greg Walker (Mechanical Engineering)

The Role of Surface Recombination in Single Event Phenomena

Andrew Tonigan, Ph.D. September 2020
under the direction of Ron Schrimpf (Electrical Engineering)

Advancing the Fundamental Understanding of Active Layer Formation for Developing High-Performance Nanofiltration Membrane

Yuanzhe Liang Ph.D. October 2020
under the direction of Shihong Lin (Civil and Environmental Engineering)

Multilayer Flat Optics

You Zhou Ph.D. July 2020
under the direction of Jason Valentine (Mechanical Engineering)

Realizing Directional, Narrowband Thermal Emission through Control of Spectral Dispersion and Strong Coupling

Joshua Ryan Nolen, Ph.D. May 2020
under the direction of Josh Caldwell (Mechanical Engineering)

A Sustainable Approach to Engineering Electrode Materials and Additives for Energy Storage Systems

Kathleen Moyer, Ph.D. November 2019
under the direction of Cary Pint (Mechanical Engineering)

Automated Optimization of Pseudopotentials for Faster and more Accure Plane Wave Density Functional Theory Calculations in Materials

Casey Brock, Ph.D. May 2019
under the direction of Greg Walker (Mechanical Engineering)

Unraveling the Interplay between Structure and Photophysics in Colloidal Quantum Dot Nanostructures

Kemar Reid, Ph.D. May 2019
under the direction of Sandra Rosenthal (Chemistry) & Richard Haglund (Physics)

Sustainable Manufacturing of Carbon Nanomaterials for Energy Storage Applications

Anna Douglas, Ph.D. May 2019
under the direction of Cary Pint (Mechanical Engineering) & Rizia Bardhan (Chemical Engineering)

Illuminating Molecular Mechanisms of Serotonin Transporter Regulation with Quantum Dot Single Particle Tracking

Danielle Bailey, Ph.D. January 2019
under the direction of Sandra Rosenthal (Chemistry) & Qi Zhang (Pharmacology)

Nanomaterial-based Approaches to the Study of Membrane Signaling

Kristina Kitko, Ph.D. December 2018
under the direction of Qi Zhang (Pharmacology)

Mechano-Electrochemistry for Advanced Energy Storage and Harvesting Devices

Nitin Muralidharan, Ph.D. June 2018
under the direction of Cary Pint (Mechanical Engineering) & Douglas Adams (Civil Engineering)

Hybrid Silicon-Vanadium Dioxide Photonic Devices for Optical Modulation

Kevin Miller, Ph.D. May 2018
under the direction of Sharon Weiss (Electrical Engineering)

Engineering High Capacity Alternative Ion Battery Electrodes Through Mechanistic Insight

Keith Share, Ph.D. May 2018
under the direction of Cary Pint (Mechanical Engineering) & Rizia Bardhan (Chemical Engineering)

The Influences of Strain Rate on Mechanical Properties and Deformation Mechanisms in High-Mn and Medium-Mn TWIP-TRIP

Jake Benzing, Ph.D. May 2018
under the direction of James Wittig (Electrical Engineering)

Ultraviolet Band-Edge Emission from Zinc Oxide Nanostructures

Claire Marvinney, Ph.D. May 2018
under the direction of Richard Haglund (Physics) & Sandra Rosenthal (Chemistry)

Engineering Porous Silicon Nanoparticles for Drug Delivery of Peptide Nucleic Acid Therapeutics

Kelsey Beavers, Ph.D. May 2017
under the direction of Craig Duvall (Biomedical Engineering) & Sharon Weiss (Electrical Engineering)

Engineering Porous Silicon Photonic Structures towards Fast and Reliable Optical Biosensing

Yiliang Zhao, Ph.D. May 2017
under the direction of Sharon Weiss (Electrical Engineering) & Paul Laibinis (Chemical Engineering)

The Phase Dependent Optoelectronic Properties of Ternary I-III-VI2 Semiconductor Nanocrystals and Their Synthesis

Alice Leach, Ph.D. May 2017
under the direction of Janet Macdonald (Chemistry) & Richard Haglund (Physics)

The Evolution of Surface Symmetry in Femtosecond Laser-Induced Transient States of Matter

Joy Garnett, Ph.D. May 2017
under the direction of Norman Tolk (Physics) & Jim Davidson (Electrical Engineering)

Challenging Conventional Approaches to Energy Storage: Direct Integration of Energy Storage into Solar Cells, the Use of Scrap Metals to Build Batteries, and the Development of Multifunctional Structural Energy Storage Composites

Andrew Westover, Ph.D. December 2016
under the direction of Cary Pint (Mechanical Engineering)

Controlling Nanomaterial Assembly to Improve Material Performance in Energy

Landon Oakes, Ph.D. December 2016
under the direction of Cary Pint (Mechanical Engineering) & Rizia Bardhan (Chemical Engineering)

Zinc Oxide Nanowire Gamma-Ray Detector with High Spatiotemporal Resolution

Daniel Mayo, Ph.D. December 2016
under the direction of Richard Haglund (Physics) & Richard Mu (Fisk)

Novel TSPO Ligands to Facilitate Rapid Tracer Discovery and as Precision Imaging Diagnostics of Cancer

Jun Li, Ph.D. August 2016
under the direction of Charles Manning (Imaging Sciences) & Scott Guelcher (Chemical Engineering)

Physics and Processing of Vanadium Dioxide for Optical Devices

Robert Marvel, Ph.D. May 2016
under the direction of Richard Haglund (Physics) & Jason Valentine (Mechanical Engineering)

Physical Mechanisms Affecting Hot Carrier-Induced Degradation in Gallium Nitride HEMTs

Shubhajit Mukherjee, Ph.D. December 2015
under the direction of Ronald Schrimpf (Electrical Engineering) & Sokrates Pantelides (Physics)

Monolayer MoS2 and MoS2 / Quantum Dots Hybrids: Novel Optoelectronic Materials

Dhiraj Prasai, Ph.D. May 2015
under the direction of Kirill Bolotin (Physics) & Jason Valentine (Mechanical Engineering)

Mie Resonance Based All-Dielectric Metamaterials at Optical Frequencies

Parikshit Moitra, Ph.D. May 2015
under the direction of Jason Valentine (Mechanical Engineering) & Sharon Weiss (Electrical Engineering)

Resonant All-Dielectric Optical Metamaterials

Yuanmu Yang, Ph.D. May 2015
under the direction of Jason Valentine (Mechanical Engineering) & Sharon Weiss (Electrical Engineering)

Linear and Nonlinear Optical Study of Multilayer Ferro Electric Polymer Systems

Jennifer Jones, Ph.D. May 2015
under the direction of Norman Tolk (Physics) & Jim Davidson (Electrical Engineering)

Systematic Investigation of Defect-Mediated Photoluminescence through Radiation Induced Displacement Damage

Sarah Gollub, Ph.D. May 2015
under the direction of Greg Walker (Mechanical Engineering) & Bridget Rogers (Chemical Engineering)

Material, Optical and Electro-Optical Characterization of Si and Si-based Devices under the Influence of High Energy Radiation

Shweta Bhandaru, Ph.D. May 2015
under the direction of Sharon Weiss (Electrical Engineering)

Ultrafast Relaxation Dynamics and Optical Properties of GaAs and GaAs-based Heterostructures

Stephanie Gilbert, Ph.D. December 2014
under the direction of Norman Tolk (Physics) & Jim Davidson (Electrical Engineering)

PET Imaging Diagnostics of Mitochondrial Homeostasis in Precision Cancer Medicine

Matthew Hight, Ph.D. December 2014
under the direction of Charles Manning (Radiology & Radiological Sciences)

Folate-targeted Proteolytic Nanobeacons: Towards Selective, Imaged Delivery in Solid Tumors

Ian McFadden, Ph.D. December 2014
under the direction of Oliver McIntyre (Radiology & Radiological Sciences) & Todd Giorgio (Biomedical Engineering)

Development and Thermal Properties of Nanotube Polymer Composites

Enrique Jackson, Ph.D. December 2014
under the direction of Paul Laibinis (Chemical Engineering)

The Influence of Manganese Content, Temperature, and Stacking-Fault Energy on the Microstructural and Strain-Hardening Evolution of High-Manganese Transformation and Twinning-Induced Plasticity Steels

Dean Pierce, Ph.D. May 2014
under the direction of James Wittig (Electrical Engineering)

Effect of Electron and Phonon Excitation on the Optical Properties of Indirect Gap Semiconductors

Justin Gregory, Ph.D. May 2013
under the direction of Norman Tolk (Physics) & Jim Davidson (Electrical Engineering)

Hybrid Phase-Changing Nanostructures: From Reconfigurable Plasmonic Devices to Ultrafast Dynamics

Kannatassen Appavoo, Ph.D. December 2012
under the direction of Richard Haglund (Physics)

In situ DNA synthesis in Porous Silicon for Biosensing Applications

Jenifer Lawrie, Ph.D. December 2012
under the direction of Sharon Weiss (Electrical Engineering)

Heterogeneously Alloyed Semiconductor Nanocrystals with Induced Chemical Composition Gradients

Melissa Harrison, Ph.D. December 2012
under the direction of Sandra Rosenthal (Chemistry) & Sharon Weiss (Electrical Engineering)

Quantum Simulation of Nanoscale Transport in Direct Energy Conversion Materials: From Thermal-Field Emitters to Thermoelectronics

Terence Musho, Ph.D. May 2012
under the direction of Greg Walker (Mechanical Engineering)

Influence of Phonon Modes on the Thermal Conductivity of Single-wall, Double-wall, and Functionalized Carbon Nanotubes

Ebonee Walker, Ph.D. May 2012
under the direction of Greg Walker (Mechanical Engineering)

Multiwalled Carbon Nanotube Films: Fabrication Techniques and Applications

John Rigueur, Ph.D. May 2012
under the direction of Timothy Hanusa (Chemistry) and David Ernst (Physics)

Ultra-small Nanocrystals: Synthesis, Optical and Magnetic Properties, Oriented Attachment, and Film Assembly

Weidong He, Ph.D. May 2012
under the direction of James Dickerson (Physics)

TEM Study of Nanostructured Cold Cathode Diamond Field Emitter Tips

Travis Wade, Ph.D. December 2011
under the direction of Jim Davidson (Electrical Engineering) & Norman Tolk (Physics)

Nanodiamond Macroelectrodes and Ultramicroelectrode Arrays for Bio-Analyte" Detection

Supil Raina, Ph.D. December 2011
under the direction of Weng Kang (Electrical Engineering) & Jim Davidson (Electrical Engineering)

Plasmon-Exciton Coupling Dynamics in Metal ZnO Nanostructures

Benjamin Lawrie, Ph.D. August 2011
under the direction of Richard Haglund (Physics)

Multiple-Hole Defects: Optimizing Detection of Surface Perturbations in Photonic Crystal Cavities

Chris Kang, Ph.D. August 2011
under the direction of Sharon Weiss (Electrical Engineering)

Phosphor Thermometry Using Rare-Earth Doped Materials

Rachael Hansel, Ph.D. August 2010
under the direction of Greg Walker (Mechanical Engineering) & Charles Lukehart (Chemistry)

Fluids and Polymer Composites Comprising Detonation Nanodiamond

Blake Branson, Ph.D. May 2010
under the direction of Charles Lukehart (Chemistry) & Jim Davidson (Electrical Engineering)

Nanoparticles as the sole building blocks of macroscopic solids

Saad Hasan, Ph.D. May 2010
under the direction of James Dickerson (Physics) & Sandra Rosenthal (Chemistry)

Ultra-small Rare-earth Nanocrystals: Development, Film Assembly, Optical and Dielectric Studies

Sameer Mahajan, Ph.D. May 2010
under the direction of James Dickerson (Physics)

A Phosphor-based light emitting diode using white-light cadmium selenide nanocrystals

Jonathan Gosnell, Ph.D. May 2010
under the direction of Sharon Weiss (Electrical Engineering) & Sandra Rosenthal (Chemistry)

Measuring point defects in semiconductors using coherent acoustic phonon spectroscopy

Andrew Steigerwald, Ph.D. August 2010
under the direction of Norman Tolk (Physics)

Hemozoin: A Case of Heme Crystal Engineering

Anh Hoang, Ph.D. August 2010
under the direction of David Wright (Chemistry) and David Cliffel (Chemistry)

Photosystem I-Based Systems for Photoelectrochemical Energy Conversion

Peter Ciesielski, Ph.D. August 2010
under the direction of Kane Jennings (Chemical Engineering) & David Cliffel (Chemistry)

Permittivity-engineered Transparent Conducting Tin Oxide Thin Films: Deposition to Photovoltaic Applications

James Burst, Ph.D. August 2010
under the direction of Bridget Rogers (Chemical Engineering)

Mix and Match Nanodendrons for Detection and Treatment of Breast Cancer Metastases

Randy Scherer, Ph.D. May 2010
under the direction of Lynn Matrisian (Cancer Biology)

Field Emitters and Supercapacitors Based on Carbon Nanotube Films

Siyu Wei, Ph.D. December 2009
under the direction of Weng Kang (Electrical Engineering)

Electro-osmotic Pumping and Ionic Conductance Measurements in Porous Membranes

Saumitra Vajandar, Ph.D. December 2009
under the direction of Deyu Li (Mechanical Engineering)

Surface and bulk defects in CZT

Stephen Babalola, Ph.D. December 2009
under the direction of Leonard Feldman (Physics)

Molecular Recognition based Agglomeration of Quantum Dot

Chinmay Soman, Ph.D. December 2008
under the direction of Todd Giorgio (Biomedical Engineering)

Model Polyimide Films: Synthesis, Characterization, and Deposition by Resonant Infrared Laser Ablation

Nicole Dygert, Ph.D. December 2008
under the direction of Richard Haglund (Physics)

Radiation Induced Charge Trapping Studies of Advanced Si and SiC based MOS Devices

Sriram Dixit, Ph.D. May 2008
under the direction of Leonard Feldman (Physics)

Electronic Properties and Reliability of the SiO2 / SiC Interface

John Rozen, Ph.D. May 2008
under the direction of Leonard Feldman (Physics)

Charge and Energy Transfer Dynamics in Single-Wall Carbon Nanotube Ensembles

Jared Crochet, Ph.D. December 2007
under the direction of Tobias Hertel (Physics)

Coupled Quantum - Scattering Modeling of Thermoelectric Performance of Nanostructured Materials Using the Non-Equilibrium Green's Function Method

Anuruddha Bulusu, Ph.D. August 2007
under direction of Greg Walker (Mechanical Engineering

Charge Trapping Properties of Alternative High-K Dielectrics in MOS Devices

Xing Zhou, Ph.D. December 2006
under direction of Daniel Fleetwood (Electrical Engineering)

Nitrogen and Hydrogen Induced Trap Passivation at the SiO₂/4H-SiC Interface

Sarit Dhar, Ph.D. May 2005
under direction of Leonard Feldman (Physics)

Proton Irradiation Effects on Gallium Nitride-Based Devices

Aditya Karmarkar, Ph.D. December 2005
under direction of Ronald Schrimpf (Electrical Engineering)

Rapid Solidification of Undercooled Nickel and Nickel-Based Alloys

Paul Algoso, Ph.D. May 2004
under direction of Robert Bayuzick (Chemical Engineering)

IMS M.S. Alumni

Directing Heat in Low Symmetry Polaritonic Materials

Katja Diaz-Granados, M.S. December 2022
under direction of Josh Caldwell (Mechanical Engineering)

Multispectral Deep Learning Material Classification for Thermal Imaging

Noah Holliger, M.S. December 2022
under direction of Greg Walker (Mechanical Engineering)

Composition Effects on Transport Properties in Hybrid Electrolytes

Brice Harkey, M.S. December 2018
under direction of Kelsey Hatzell (Mechanical Engineering) & Greg Walker (Mechanical Engineering)

Aberration-corrected atomic number contrast scanning transmission electron microscopy of nanocrystals and nanomaterial-based systems for use in next-generation photovoltaic devices

Tony Watt, M.S. August 2008
under direction of Sandra Rosenthal (Chemistry)

Microstructure and Magnetic Properties of FePt/MgO Multilayered Thin Films

Yang Fu, M.S. December 2006
under direction of James Wittig (Electrical Engineering)

Electro-thermal simulation studies of single-event burnout in power diodes

Sameer Mahajan, M.S. May 2006; Ph.D. May 2010
under direction of Greg Walker (Mechanical Engineering)

Properties of Nanocrystalline Vanadium Dioxide

John Rozen, M.S. December 2005; Ph.D. May 2008
under direction of Leonard Feldman (Physics)

Fabrication and Electrochemical Analysis of Nanodiamond Microprobe

Shubham Basu, M.S. August 2005
under direction of Weng Kang (Electrical Engineering)

Preparative Centrifugation of Single-Wall Carbon Nanotubes: Towards Separation of Nanotubes by Density

Nitin Chaturvedi, M.S. August 2005
under direction of James Wittig (Electrical Engineering)

Title

Carrie Gauchet, M.S. 2005
under direction of James Wittig (Electrical Engineering)

Second Harmonic Generation Study of Simox SOI Structures

Liangliang Zhou, M.S. 2005
under direction of Norman Tolk (Physics)

Study of Boundary Scattering Effects on MOSFET Parameters

Aniruddha Marathe, M.S. May 2004
under direction of Greg Walker (Mechanical Engineering)

Lattice-Boltzmann Method and Sub-Continuum Heat Generation Effects

Parag Vasekar, M.S. May 2004
under direction of Greg Walker (Mechanical Engineering)

Fabrication and Field Emission Characterization of Micropatterned Polycrystalline Diamond Edge Emitter Arrays

Rohit Takalkar, M.S. May 2003
under direction of Jim Davidson (Electrical Engineering)

Evaluation of Microturbine Recuperator Materials and Oxidation Behavior of Alloy HR230

Rosa Trejo, M.S. December 2003
under direction of Louyu Roy Xu (Civil Engineering)

Study of Native Oxide Etching, Kinetics of Native Oxide Growth and Surface Termination in p-Type Si (100) Substrates

Vivek Pawar, M.S. December 2002
under direction of Bridget Rogers (Chemical Engineering)

Interdisciplinary Materials Science Program