(3ca) Engineering Nanomaterials for Optoelectronic Applications and the Quantum Revolution

Advances in nanomaterials synthesis have yielded remarkable optoelectronic materials with the potential to address problems spanning the fields of clean energy, medicine, and quantum information. However, instances of successfully creating devices from these materials are limited. For example, current computing architectures are power-inefficient, and their energy consumption is projected to exceed global energy production in 2040, highlighting the need for alternative, specialized computing strategies based on new materials and devices. While nanomaterials have provided the building blocks for initial proof-of-concept computing devices, numerous basic science and engineering challenges remain before we can fully realize technologies that improve upon our existing devices. Challenges include developing atomically precise syntheses to make the desired nanomaterials, understanding structure-property relationships to guide syntheses, and creating tools to translate these materials into functional devices.

My research interests focus on developing new synthetic strategies for atomically precise nanomaterials with tunable optoelectronic responses, studying the origin of these optical phenomena, and incorporating these materials into devices with applications in quantum information, neuromorphic computing, and specialized photochemistry.

Here, I’ll present my proposed research program to accomplish these goals and an overview of previous research that has uniquely prepared me to implement this plan. I’ll present studies that demonstrate high fidelity control of nanomaterial composition and assembly across a wide range of length scales. Specifically, I’ll emphasize the synthesis and characterization of doped materials for quantum computing and clean energy applications. In addition, I’ll outline a research plan to study structure-property relationships in nanomaterials and to develop scalable processing methods for the integration of these materials into macroscopic devices with applications in quantum technologies, neuromorphic computing for big data, metamaterials, and photochemistry. Additionally, while this plan focuses on energy and computing, the syntheses, relationships, and tools will be directly applicable to a wide range of fields including drug delivery, in vivo imaging, wastewater treatment, and battery production.

Teaching Interests:

My primary goal in teaching is to train the next generation of thoughtful scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs with the tools to scale up resources to benefit our global society and to translate laboratory advances into startups. In the classroom, I intend to employ an inverted process learning that places forthcoming concepts into context before explaining detailed examples. By emphasizing context before formalisms, I hope to generate a basis of understanding and function before addressing details. While I was taught primarily via Socratic lectures, I acted as a teaching assistant in “flipped” classrooms, and I look forward to testing and introducing new teachings methods into my classroom. Throughout my mentorship and teaching, I also plan to emphasize entrepreneurship and ethical questions that inspire students to create new technology and simultaneously encourage them to consider how the benefits technology and products are distributed in society. The goal is to train entrepreneurs with the ability to create a business from the ground up and who will produce inventions that create a more equitable society.

During my PhD, I incorporated transport phenomena throughout my publications. Using this basis, I’m particularly excited to teach transport phenomena classes, including finite element calculations and unique examples from nanomaterials. I’m similarly excited to teach kinetics, mass and energy balance, and senior design topics. For graduate students and advanced undergraduates, I plan to create classes that provide practical introductions to nanomaterials, optics, and quantum information that will expand student’s research capabilities and provide a unique toolset for the next generation of chemical engineering jobs.

Starting in my undergraduate university and throughout my career, I have tried to engage local K-12 schools to generate interest in STEM fields. During my undergraduate studies, I founded a program that brought local students from majority black schools to Georgia Tech for a day of experiments and fun. At the University of Washington, I participated in Discovery Days, which similarly introduced local students to STEM. The training of a successful engineer starts early, and I believe influencing that pipeline before tertiary education is necessary to improve diversity in chemical engineering. As a faculty member, I will create a similar program that targets underrepresented groups and brings them to campus for a day of learning, memorable experiments, and puzzles, exposing them to STEM at an early age.