Undergrad Institution: University of Minnesota
Undergraduate Major: Chemistry, Physics
PhD Institution: University of California, Berkeley
PhD Department: Chemistry
I use nonlinear optics, specifically harmonic generation to study structure, electronic properties, and ultrafast phenomena in "quantum materials," which I broadly define as materials that display unique capabilities due to quantum mechanical phenomena that make them prime candidates for applications in modern technology. I use solid-state high harmonic generation spectroscopy (sHHG) at my home-built setup at UC Berkeley to explore band structure, symmetry, and ultrafast phenomena at ambient and extreme conditions. I also travel to x-ray free electron laser (FEL) facilities in order to develop the technique of soft x-ray second harmonic generation (SX-SHG), which we use to study interfacial phenomena such as band bending in p-n junctions.

Undergrad Institution: University of Minnesota
Undergraduate Major: Civil Engineering
PhD Institution: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
PhD Department: Mechanical Engineering
My research focus is in the field of continuum mechanics, both theory and computation, with a granular material emphasis. Currently, I am working on developing a better model to describe powder compaction, a ubiquitous process across many industries: metallurgy, ceramics, additive manufacturing, pharmaceutics, and more. In particular, I have been developing a better contact model to understand the forces between many interacting highly deformable powder particles for usage in the discrete element method, an analogous technique to molecular dynamics for granular material.

Undergrad Institution: Yale University
Undergraduate Major: Physics
PhD Institution: University of Colorado, Boulder/JILA
PhD Department: Physics
My PhD research is in quantum-enhanced sensing with superconducting circuits for dark matter search applications. I am working to bridge the gap between idealized conceptions of quantum technologies and their realizable experimental applications. More specifically, the search for axion dark matter is an incredibly resource- and time-intensive challenge which is particularly amenable to accelerations from quantum technologies. By engineering a quantum-non-demolition interaction to read out the signal from axion detectors, we hope to accelerate the search rate for axions by an order of magnitude compared to the quantum-limited search rate.

Undergrad Institution: University of Minnesota
Undergraduate Major: Multidisciplinary Studies
PhD Institution: University of Minnesota
PhD Department: Electrical & Computer Engineering
My research is focused on 2 areas. First is on cryogenic spin-orbit torque magnetic random access memory (cryo-SOT-MRAM) for high-density quantum processors. Second is on fractal, nanoscale magnetic-based spin qubits. Each area takes advantage of sustainable, new, and emerging quantum materials made on-campus at UMN.