Dr. Nicholas Esker is an assistant professor of chemistry at SJSU. Originally from Florida, he attended the Wilkes Honors College in Jupiter Fl for his Bachelors in Liberal Arts and Science. He attended UC Berkeley for his graduate studies, where he first learned nuclear science working under Prof. Heino Nitsche, Prof. Joe Cerny, and Prof. Darleane Hoffman. His doctoral work focused on building FIONA, a mass separator for superheavy elements. After receiving his PhD in 2016, he moved to Vancouver BC to become a post-doctoral researcher at TRIUMF, where he helped commission the recoil mass spectrometer EMMA under Dr. Barry Davids.

Since he joined the SJSU chemistry department in Aug 2019, where he teaches physical chemistry and nuclear chemistry. His studies nuclear behavior far from stability, focusing on nuclear reactions using recoil mass spectrometry, thin-film production techniques (targetry), and nuclear science education / outreach. He is excited to introduce nuclear science to the students of SJSU!

When not in lab or the classroom, he is spending time with his wonderful partner and their growing family (see pic). He believes that bold, silly enthusiasm can overcome even the coldest waters (again, see pic).

Contact info below.