Our research currently focuses on the role of grain boundaries and interfaces in ceramic materials. My group studies how multiphase ceramics (primarily oxides) can be fabricated to optimize desired properties. In addition, our group uses high resolution analytical transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to study the chemistry, bonding, and structure of grain boundaries and interfaces between … Continued
Chemistry and physics of materials with an emphasis on nanoscale materials; rational synthesis of new nanoscale materials and nanostructured solids; development of methodologies for hierarchical assembly of nanoscale materials into complex and functional systems; investigation of fundamental electronic, optical and optoelectronic properties of nanoscale materials; design and development of nanoelectronics and nanophotonic systems with emphasis … Continued
I am interested in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. This includes diagnostic technologies designed to measure ~50 proteins from a fingerprick of blood, all within a time window that is shorter than the clotting or protease degradation kinetics. A second project includes the use of game theory to begin decoding the conversation between the … Continued
As Center Director of the Materials Science Center at NREL, I am leading the efforts of ~ 150 scientists, engineers, postdocs, students, technical staff and affiliated visitors to advance the materials science required for renewable energy, energy efficiency and advanced energy technologies for a sustainable energy future. The Materials Science Center advances knowledge in the … Continued
Crystals and films of conjugated molecules transport charge and can be used as functional semiconductors in thin film transistors, photovoltaic devices, and light-emitting diodes. My research program focuses on understanding connections between structure and electrical transport behavior in organic semiconductors. We are particularly interested in the dependence of electron and hole mobility (the velocity per … Continued
Complex oxide materials possess an enormous range of electrical, optical, and magnetic properties. For instance, insulators, high quality metals, dielectrics, ferroelectrics, piezoelectrics, semiconductors, ferromagnetics, transparent conductors, colossal magnetoresistance materials, superconductors, and nonlinear optic materials have all been produced using oxide materials. Therefore, thin films and heterostructures of oxide materials have great potential for novel device … Continued
A broad research focus covering 2D materials, carbon nanomaterials, catalytic nanomotors, frustrated systems, carbon nanothreads, metalattices, and occasional forays into astrophysics and plant biology, with an array of primarily computational and sometimes analytical theoretical techniques and a favored goal of funding or defining new ideas physical regimes defined by geometrical constraint and energy scale hierarchy.
My research is concerned with the chemistry and physics of semiconductor nanocrystallites – specifically, their synthesis, manipulation, and optical properties.
Our lab seeks to understand and harness nature’s own processes in order to design technologically important materials and devices for energy, the environment, and medicine. Ancient organisms have evolved to make exquisite nanostructures like shells and glassy diatoms. Using directed evolution, our lab engineers organisms to grow and assemble novel hybrid organic-inorganic electronic, magnetic, and … Continued
A unifying theme in my group’s research is the use of pressure to synthesize, deposit, or probe solid state materials. We have pioneered an approach to the the synthesis of crystalline carbon nanomaterials through non-topochemical solid state reaction of unsaturated small organic molecules. For example, carbon and carbon nitride nanothreads self-assemble into single crystals upon … Continued