Zakaria Y. Al Balushi (Zak)

Office: 375 Hearst Memorial Mining BuildingBerkeley, CA 94720-1760
Mail: 210 Hearst Memorial Mining BuildingBerkeley, CA 94720-1760
Email: albalushi@berkeley.eduPhone: (510) 664-5211

Principal Investigator

Associate Professor in Materials Science and Engineering at University of California, Berkeley; Faculty Scientist in the Materials Sciences Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Labs and Co-Director of the Berkeley Emerging Technologies Research (BETR) Center.

January 2019 - Present

o ACADEMIC PREPARATION:

Resnick Prize Postdoc Fellow in Applied Physics and Materials Science at California Institute of Technology with Prof. Harry A. Atwater, 2017-2018.

Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering at Penn State, 2012-2017.

B.S./M.S. in Engineering Science and Mechanics at Penn State, 2007-2012.

[PI Honors and Awards are Listed Here]

Postdocs/Visitors interested in applying to group, please email CV + 1 page research statement + 3 reference contacts.
Perspective PhD students must apply through UC Berkeley Graduate Division Fall admission cycle.
For undergrad research positions, please contact current PhD students below.

Derick Tseng

PhD Graduate Studentderickwtseng@berkeley.edu
Materials Science and Engineering
BS Materials Science and EngineeringUC Berkeley

Zhongzheng Mao

PhD Graduate Studentwilliammao@berkeley.edu
Materials Science and Engineering
BE Materials Science and EngineeringSouthern University of Science and Technology

Rachel Cooper

PhD Graduate Studentrachel_cooper@berkeley.edu
Chemistry
BS ChemistryU. Michigan

Katherine Hinds

PhD Graduate Studentkhinds@berkeley.edu
Materials Science and Engineering
BS Materials Science and EngineeringU. Washington

Lingyu Meng

Postdoc Scholarlymeng@berkeley.edu
PhD Electrical and Computer EngineeringOhio State

Rose Aljishi

Undergraduate Student
Materials Science and Engineering

Sela Murphy

Undergraduate Student
Materials Science and Engineering

Phillis Wan

Undergraduate Student
Chemistry

GROUP ALUMNI

Jiayun Liang

PhD Graduate Student
PhD in Materials Science and Engineering at UC Berkeley, 2024+Postdoc Scholar, 2025

Now Process Engineer at Lam Research

Healin Im

Postdoc Scholar
UCB/LBNL 2022-2025
Now Assistant Professor at at Kyung Hee University, South Korea

Xiaotian Zhang

Postdoc Scholar
UCB/LBNL 2020-2021
Now Professor, Frontier Materials Research Department, Suzhou Laboratory

Bum Jun Kim

Postdoc Scholar
UCB/LBNL 2023-2025
Now Process Engineer at Samsung Electronics, South Korea

Ethan Chee Kiat Goh

Undergraduate Student
Visiting Student from Nanyang Technological University

Aidan Conor McNabb

MS Graduate Student
Class of 2026
Now Process Engineer at TSMC

Justin Wong

MS Graduate Student
Class of 2026
Now Process Engineer at Applied Materials

Mark Buckingham

Postdoc Scholar
UCB/LBNL 2025-2026

Joshua Herrera

Class of 2026
M.S. Chemisty at UC Berkeley

Sejun Park

Visiting Undergraduate Student

Class of 2026
BS, Nano Science and Engineering / Mechanical Engineering at Yonsei University

Vibeke Rogde

MS Exchange Student
Norwegian Uni. of Science & Technology
Now Energy Engineer at Ramboll in Denmark

Elena Unterleutner

MS Exchange Student
Technische Universität Graz, Austria
PhD student at Technische Universität Graz, Austria

Sara Susanto

MS Graduate Student
Class of 2022
Now Solutions Specialist at Gotion High-Tech Indonesia

Honghyuk Kim

Postdoc Scholar
UCB/LBNL 2019-2020
Now Assistant Professor at Hanyang University, South Korea

Nara Zorigt

Postdoc Scholar
UCB 2025-2026

Albert Ho

MEng. Student
Class of 2026

Amanda Zhu

MEng. Student
Class of 2026

Isa Chen

MEng. Student
Class of 2026

Ziwen Fang

MEng. Student
Class of 2026

Nicolo Zucchi

MEng. Student
Class of 2026

Lei Wu

MEng. Student
Class of 2026

Maxime Denis

MEng. Student
Class of 2026

Yingqiao Wang

MEng. Student
Class of 2026

Yi Zheng Gan

MEng. Student
Class of 2026

Ozan Sahin

MS Graduate Student

Nhayeon Lee

MEng. Student
Class of 2026

Erik Johnson

MEng. Student
Class of 2023
Now Process Engineer at Applied Materials

Yuxin Luo

MEng. Student
Class of 2023
Now Process Engineer at Lam Research

Bowei Tang

MEng. Student
Class of 2023
Now Surface Finishing Engineer at Foxconn

Tony Yang

MEng. Student
Class of 2026

Kashyap Ganesan

MEng. Student
Class of 2023
Now Process Integration Engineer at Atomica

Haowen Hu

MEng. Student
Class of 2023
Now PhD Student at institute of Microelectronics of Barcelona

Neil Wang

MEng. Student
Class of 2023
Now Founding Process Engineerat Destination 2D

Iris Yang

MEng. Student
Class of 2023
Now Failure Analysis Engineer at Samsung Semiconductors

Andika Nugroho

MEng. Student
Class of 2023
Now Solutions Specialist at Gotion High-Tech Indonesia

Ellis Spickermann

Undergraduate Student
Class of 2022
Now PhD Student in Applied Physics and Materials Science at Caltech

Sela Murphy

TTE Intern
Pasadena City College
Now Undergraduate in Materials Science and Engineering at UC Berkeley

Lina Gannon

Undergraduate Student
Class of 2021
BS, MSE; Now Associate Research Scientist at Sublime Systems

Ethan Klein

Undergraduate Student
Class of 2021
BS, Engineering Physics; Now PhD Student in Applied Physics and Materials Science at Caltech

Fernando Campos

MEng. Student
Class of 2023
Now Research Technologist at NREL

Walker Browning

Undergraduate Student
Class of 2023
BS, MSE; Now at Amazon

Ayush Gupta

Undergraduate Student
Class of 2023
BS, MSE; Now PhD student in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT

Jacob Ahmed

TTE Intern
College of Alameda and Class of 2024 at UC Berkeley
Now Cost Engineer at Rudolph and Sletten

Jennifer Toy

Undergraduate Student
Class of 2024
BS, MSE; Now PhD student at Stanford University Materials Science and Engineering

Daniel Yao

Undergraduate Student
Class of 2024
BS, MSE; Now Module Development Engineer at Intel

Saad Asad

Undergraduate Student
Class of 2027
BS, EECS at UC Berkeley

Jasmine Lee

Undergraduate StudentNavy ROTC
Class of 2027
BA, Applied Mathematics at UC Berkeley

Rovic Laoeng Inocencio

Undergraduate Student
Class of 2027
BS, Chemical Engineering at UC Berkeley

Mihir Marathe

Undergraduate Student

Class of 2026
BS, EECS at UC Berkeley

Bryant Le Nguyen

Undergraduate Student
Class of 2023
BS, Chemistry at UC Berkeley

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