(2aa) Architecting Functional Colloidal Materials Via Non-Equilibrium Interfacial Assembly

My research has focused on engineering the emergent optical, electronic, and mechanical properties of colloidal nanoparticles and of dielectric materials templated by them. My key contributions have been (i) exploring workflows for high-purity refinement and directed assembly of carbon and boron nitride nanotubes, (ii) developing a joint experimental-computational platform for understanding and engineering the optical behavior of bioinspired high-index photonic nanostructures, (iii) performing chemical vapor deposition and nanofabrication of efficient III-nitride light-emitting diodes, and (iv) investigating tunable semiconductor surface wetting afforded by moth-eye-like antireflective patterning.

My vision is to build a research program developing reconfigurable, area-scalable, and low-cost materials for high-performance optical and electronic devices by leveraging my unique expertise at the intersection of optical physics, optoelectronic materials, colloidal assembly, and instrumentation development. Specifically, I look forward to (i) leveraging interfacial assembly to actuate and arrest colloidal configurations for arbitrarily templating metamaterials, and (ii) developing computationally-informed design rules for disorder-immune functional photonic structures to be implemented in devices such as flat optics, sensors, and waveguides. In this way, I aim to lower the economic and technological barrier for high-performance photonic elements, allowing more effective and widespread implementation of sustainable solutions at the frontiers of energy generation and consumption, communication, computing, and sensing, as well as advance the fundamental understanding of assembly in soft matter systems and light-matter interactions.

Teaching Interests

In addition to the core chemical engineering course curriculum (in particular thermodynamics, transport, and reaction kinetics), I am interested in developing course materials in colloidal science, applied optics, electronic device physics, spectroscopy, and instrumentation. I am also versed in materials science pertaining to single-crystalline semiconductors, including defects and characterization methods.