Congratulations to our 2017-2018 Materials Ph.D. Graduates

Monday, June 3, 2019

The Materials Department at UCSB would like to congratulate our 2017-2018 Ph.D. graduates and welcome them into the Materials Alumni family. Twenty-four students had their degrees conferred in Fall 2017-Summer 2018. Take a look and see where a few of our graduates have headed as they embark on their careers. 

 

 

Tobias Brown-Heft, Ph.D. '18Engineering Magnetic and Topological Properties in Epitaxial Heusler Compounds, advised by Prof. Christopher Palmstrom

Tobias is currently a Components Research Engineer at Intel Corporation in Hillsboro, OR. Components research engineers are responsible for leading programs to design, fabricate, and analyze novel devices/interconnects/patterning, materials and integration schemes across a wide variety of novel applications.

 

Silvia H. Chan, Ph.D. '18First Developments of AlSiO Gate Dielectrics by MOCVD: A Pathway to Efficient GaN Electronics, co-advised by Prof. Umesh Mishra and Prof. Steven Denbaars

Silvia is a Materials Engineer at SpaceX, where she is solving technological challenges as part of the greater effort to enable space exploration and human life on other planets.

 

 

Clayton Cozzan, Ph.D. '18Phosphors for Laser Lighting Applications: Structural Evolution, Dense Monoliths, and Thermally Stable Composites, advised by Prof. Ram Seshadri

Clayton has started a new position at Kyocera as a Senior R&D Engineer. He will be working to design and manufacture semiconductor multilayer ceramic packaging products.

 

Douglas Fabini, Ph.D. '18Main-group halide perovskites: Structural & dynamical insights for photovoltaic performance, advised by Prof. Ram Seshadri

Doug is a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research in Stuttgart, Germany, working in the lab of Prof. Bettina Lotsch. His research aims to establish the prospects of materials with topologically non-trivial electronic structure for applications in electrocatalysis and sensing.

 

Humberto ForondaPh.D. '17Validation of Vegard's Law for Lattice Matching InxAl1-xN to GaN & the MOCVD Growth of AlxGa1-xN/AIN for Deep UV LEDs, co-advised by Prof. James Speck and Prof. Steven DenBaars

Humberto is a Postdoctoral Researcher at Berlin Institute of Technology (Technische Universität Berlin) in Professor Michael Kneissl's research group working on the growth of semipolar UV emitters. In addition, Humberto was awarded the Alexander Von Humboldt fellowship giving him the opportunity to carry out long term research in Germany.

Sean David Harrington, Ph.D. '18, Semiconducting Half-Heusler Based Compounds and Heterostructures Grown by Molecular Beam Epitaxy, advised by Prof. Christopher Palmstrøm

Sean is continuing his Ph.D. research as a part-time Postdoctoral Researcher in Professor Palmstrøm's lab, researching semiconducting half-Heusler based compounds and heterostructures. Outside of his research, he is training and competing as a professional triathlete.

 

Changmin LeePh.D. '17III-nitride Laser Diode for Visible Light Communication, advised by Prof. Steven DenBaars

After receiving his Ph.D., Changmin worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher under Professor Jim Speck where he was working on III-nitride high-speed photonic device development including LEDs, lasers, and photodetectors for visible light communication applications. He is now a VCSEL R&D engineer at STM where he will be working on 3D sensing technology.
 

Asad MughalPh.D. '17Novel Materials and Fabrication Techniques for Enhanced Current Spreading and Light Extraction in High Efficiency Light-emitting Diodes, advised by Prof. Steven DenBaars

Asad is currently working on the synthesis of 2-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides (2D TMDs), which are a class of materials that include semiconductors with promising application in electronics, optoelectronics, and sensors. As a Postdoctoral Researcher at Penn State University, his work is mainly focused on the large area growth of these materials using plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition.

 

Ryan NeedPh.D. '17Induced Magnetism and Symmetry Breaking Within Strongly Correlated Oxide Heterostructures, advised by Prof. Stephen Wilson

Ryan is now working as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the NIST Center for Neutron Research in Gaithersburg, Maryland where he is supported by a fellowship from the National Research Council. His current research focuses on designing interfaces between dissimilar materials to promote emergent phenomena. This work makes use of advanced characterization probes, such as synchrotron X-ray and neutron sources, to probe the interfacial properties of complex transition metal oxides and metallic multilayers with numerous potential applications in next-generation logic and memory devices.

Wennie Wang, Ph.D. '18, The Influence of High Doping on Electronic and Optical Properties in Tungsten Oxide, advised by Prof. Van de Walle(link is external)

Wennie will be joining the Galli group as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Institute for Molecular Engineering located at the University of Chicago. She will continue research using first-principles methods, working on interfaces for water splitting applications and methodology development.

 

 

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Alumni