Doctoral Students

Cesar Ascencio

I am a Physics Ph.D. candidate at the University of Minnesota advised by Tony Low from the Electrical Engineering department. My research focus has been on the computational and theoretical study of topological materials and their potential applications in spintronics. Currently, my research involves investigation of topological semimetals' optoelectronic properties.

Emma Bartelsen

My name is Emma Bartelsen and I'm from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I'm working under Dr. Joshua Caldwell in the Interdisciplinary Materials Science Program at Vanderbilt University.

Jeb Buchner

Mr. Jeb Buchner joined the Caldwell Lab in Spring of 2024 as a student in the Interdisciplinary Material Science Program at Vanderbilt. Originally from Tallahassee, Florida, he graduated from Auburn University with a degree in Materials Engineering.

Jane Chen

Jane is a first-year PhD student in Materials Science and Engineering at Stanford University advised by Prof. Jennifer Dionne. Her research focuses on chiral electroluminescence enabled by metasurfaces.

Sahil Dagli

Sahil Dagli is a 5^th year PhD student in the Materials Science and Engineering department at Stanford University advised by Prof. Jen Dionne. His research focuses on developing electro-optically tunable metasurfaces using silicon and lithium niobate for applications in wavefront shaping and optical communications.

Saurabh Dixit

Saurabh Dixit is a postdoctoral researcher working at Vanderbilt University in the domain of 2D thin films and metamaterials for their potential applications in integrated nanophotonic and optical devices.

Johnathan Georgaras

PhD. Candidate in Materials Science

Jornada Group, Stanford

Johnathan's research explores electronic and optical behaviors of twisted bilayer TMDCs and other van der Waals heterostructures, employing state-of-the art ab initio approaches. He systematically investigates interlayer coupling effects and excitonic phenomena to elucidate charge carrier dynamics, aiming to engineer material properties for specific applications in nanoscale optoelectronics.

Jonah Haber

Jonah is a postdoctoral researcher advised by Professor Felipe da Jornada in the Materials Science Department at Stanford University. He earned his PhD in Physics at UC Berkeley under Professor Jeffrey Neaton where his research focused primarily on simulating excited state dynamics, with an emphasis on exciton-phonon interactions. Currently he is working to understand how strong light sources can be used to engineer properties of 2D materials, especially those related to band topology.

Raghunandan B. Iyer

Raghunandan B. Iyer is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Iowa with a rich academic background. He earned his PhD from Iowa State University and holds a master's in technology from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. His academic journey boasts significant research experience at renowned institutions, including the Center for Nano Science and Engineering at the Indian Institute of Science and the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay.

His research interests include investigating light-matter interactions, nano-optics, and optical and magnetic characterization of materials. His research investigates cutting-edge materials, exploring their properties and potential applications in nanophotonics and optoelectronics.

Youngji Kim

I am a postdoc researcher in Caldwell's group. I earned my phD degree from Ewha Womans Unviersity, South Korea, in February 2023. During my phD, I explored structural colors using metasurfaces and investigated methods to dynamically control these structural colors through external stimuli. Currently, my focus lies in understanding how to tune optical properties in both the visible and mid-infrared (MIR) regions using 2D materials and metasurfaces.

Amal Mathew

I'm a second year PhD student in Applied Physics in the Tony Heinz group at Stanford. My research involves investigating optoelectronic properties and potential applications of 2D materials. Currently, I'm working on fabricating, and characterizing fundamental properties of, black phosphorus (BP) as well as other heterostructures involving BP.

Zachary Mauri

Zachary is a PhD student advised by Felipe da Jornada in the Materials Science and Engineering department at Stanford University. His research interests lie in the field of theoretical and computational materials physics, with an emphasis on the optoelectronic properties of materials. Current research projects focus on the regime of strong light-matter coupling known to host exotic states with mixed excitonic and photonic character, known as exciton-polaritons.

Sang Hyun Park

I am a PhD student in the Electrical Engineering department at the University of Minnesota advised by Prof. Tony Low. My current research focuses on the theoretical and computational study of plasmons in two-dimensional materials. Currently, I am working on chiral plasmons in twisted bilayer materials and topological plasmons in artificial lattices.

Akash Ramdas

Akash is a Ph.D. student in the materials science department at Stanford University advised by Prof. Felipe H. da Jornada. His work involves using computational methods (ab-initio methods, data analysis, and machine learning) for identifying novel materials for electronic applications

Nikita Roldan-Levchenko

Undergraduate student at the University of Minnesota

Duarte Sousa

Postdoc at the University of Minnesota

Helen Yao

I am a Ph.D. student in Materials Science and Engineering in Tony Heinz group. My research interest lies in using optical techniques to probe van der Waals 2D materials optoelectronics and nanophotonic device properties that may find application for next-generation devices. My current research projects include using MIR laser and synchrotron light sources to understand mode hybridizations in MoO3 and probing exciton hybridizations in 2D TMDC hetero-bilayers with NIR spectroscopy.