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We have multiple openings for PhD students - please apply here! Deadline Dec 1st: https://gradschool.princeton.edu/admission-onboarding/apply 

Welcome! I am an Assistant Professor at Princeton University with joint appointments in the Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering (MAE) and the Princeton Materials Institute (PMI). My group's interests are broadly in the areas of nanoscale thermal transport, nanoelectronics, and ultrafast science. Our approach involves visualizing materials on fast timescales, and asking how this dynamic behavior can be controlled for applications in energy-efficient computing, energy harvesting, and energy storage. Some questions of interest include: Can we actively control heat flow at the atomic scale? Can we make atomic-scale "movies" of electronic devices and image short-lived transient states in materials? Can we use external means to modulate ion transport in energy-storage materials? Can we create new "non-equilibrium” states of matter through ultrafast excitation? The group enjoys working on interdisciplinary problems in energy and computing, with a core emphasis on understanding physical phenomena. In addition to performing experimental work at Princeton, my group is an active user of advanced electron and X-ray sources at national labs across the country. 

Before starting at Princeton in Jan 2023, I was a postdoc and research scientist at the Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, at Stanford University and SLAC National Lab, where I worked with Profs. Aaron Lindenberg and Will Chueh on developing methods to visualize electrically- and optically-driven structural dynamics in low-dimensional materials. This work resulted in the first atomic-scale ultrafast "movie" of a memory bit, and the discovery of a new mechanism for ultra-efficient energy transfer at atomic junctions. Prior to that, I received my Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from Stanford, where I worked with Prof. Ken Goodson studying nanoscale thermal transport in 2D materials and defect-rich crystals. My dissertation work included the demonstration of a nanoscale thermal switch based on ion intercalation, and the development of a microscopy technique to visualize heat flow near a single grain boundary. My postdoc work was recognized by the MRS Postdoctoral Award (2022), the Early Career Award from the AVS Nanoscale Science & Technology Division (2022), and the LCLS Young Investigator Award from SLAC National Lab (2021). For my graduate work, I received a Gold Graduate Student Award from MRS (2017). 


CV (updated Jan 2024)


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