2022-23 MRSEC Students and Postdoctoral Researchers

ORCID: 
PI: Hao Su (lab)
Key Areas of Expertise: 

ORCID: 0000-0001-9835-7136
PI: Nicholas Boechler (lab)
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Nicolas is a Ph.D student in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering department, researching stimuli-responsive metamaterial systems in Prof. Boechler's lab. Nicolas received his B.S in Materials Science and a minor in Mathematics from the University of Arizona in 2020. He is the recipient of a ORAU Journeyman Fellowship through the DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory (ARL) Research Associateship Program.

ORCID: 0009-0009-2130-3290
PI: Zhaowei Liu (lab)
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Jie is in Electrical and Computer Engineering department of the Jacobs School of Engineering, whose research focus is on plasmonic enhanced light source and optoelectronic device.

ORCID: 
PI: Zeinab Jahed (lab)
Key Areas of Expertise: 

ORCID: 0000-0002-6265-9930
PI: Ester Kwon (lab)
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Katelyn earned her BS in biomedical engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, and is currently a PhD candidate in the lab of Dr. Ester Kwon in the Shu Chien-Gene Lay Department of Bioengineering at UCSD. Her research explores targeted gene therapy at the blood-brain barrier for treating traumatic brain injury. In her free time, she enjoys playing taiko and doing public health advocacy.

ORCID: 0009-0008-9435-8367
PI: Zeinab Jahed (lab)
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Shivani a PhD student in Bioengineering. She aims for her work to enable more robust preclinical studies of drug screening and therapeutic development for neurological diseases including CTE and Alzheimer’s.

ORCID: 0000-0002-9344-6313
PI: Shengqiang Cai (lab)
Key Areas of Expertise: Fracture analysis, lattice structures, FEA methods

Ram is a Ph.D. student in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering department, working in the Cai group at UC San Diego. He earned his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Kharagpur. His research focuses on investigating instabilities in soft lattice structures through computational methods, with an emphasis on fracture analysis under large deformation conditions.

ORCID: 0000-0001-7198-4527
PI: Zhaowei Liu (lab)
Key Areas of Expertise: 

Luke is a PhD student in Electrical and Computer Engineering at UC San Diego and received his bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering at the University of British Columbia. He is currently working in Prof. Zhaowei Liu's lab to develop novel quantum metamaterials for extreme nonlinear optics.

ORCID: 0000-0002-7689-4413
PI: Zheng Chen (lab)
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Anthony is a postdoctoral researcher in Professor Zheng Chen's group in the Department of NanoEngineering at UC San Diego. His current research focuses on the development of metal-organic framework-based ionic conductors for batteries. He received his B.S. in Chemistry from Texas A&M University, where he also obtained his Ph.D. in Chemistry under the tutelage of Professor Lei Fang. His dissertation work focused on controlling the conformation of π-conjugated organic molecules using hydrogen-bond interactions. He enjoys spending time with family, traveling, hiking, and gymnastics in his free time.

ORCID: 0000-0001-8335-5824
PI: Richard Averitt (lab)
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Varun is a PhD student in the Physics department, working with the group of Dr. Richard D. Averitt. He received his BS-MS dual degrees in Physics from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Kolkata in 2019. His research here at UC San Diego focuses on exploring novel phenomena in quantum materials using far-infrared (Terahertz) lasers. Working onMRSEC, Varun will be using dynamical THz spectroscopy to study quantum materials and sub-wavelength metamaterials coupled to them with the eventual goal of harnessing fundamental properties of the material with infrared light.

ORCID:0000-0002-7841-5244
PI: Zeinab Jahed (lab)
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Ali is a PhD student in the Nanoengineering program working in the Jahed lab. His research, for which he will travel as a Merkin Graduate Fellow to the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland, is breaking new ground in the study of bacterial behavior in infectious diseases. Ali's project focuses on uncovering the complex molecular mechanisms behind bacterial mechanosensing, utilizing nanopattern platforms. Ali's work aims to elucidate how pathogens sense and navigate obstacles on surfaces, a critical factor in their survival and pathogenicity, for which the insights gained from his work could pave the way for new strategies in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of biofilm-associated infections, particularly in clinical settings.

ORCID: 0000-0002-4088-6470
PI: David Fenning (lab)
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Chelsea is a PhD student in the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department at UC San Diego as advised by Prof. Fenning. She received her BS in Chemistry from Pacific Lutheran in Tacoma, WA. Her research interests are in the characterization of ultra-thin perovskite films with application for dynamic catalysis and advanced electronics.

ORCID: 0000-0001-7459-4145
PI: Zhaowei Liu (lab)
Key Areas of Expertise: 

Fanglin is in his 5th year of his Ph.D. program in Electrical and Computer Engineering. His research explores the extraordinary phenomena of optical devices by encircling quantum materials & systems and the topological insulators. His current work examines how strong optical nonlinearity and topological photonics can reshape active photonic devices (free space/on-chip) in terms of efficiency and robustness. On a narrower scope, Fanglin's work uses nanometer scale metallic film to realize ultrahigh optical nonlinearity and shows topological phase transition possibility and valley Hall effect in near-infrared regime.