Current

Andriy Zakutayev is a scientist at National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), working on discovery of new materials for energy applications using high-throughput experimental (combinatorial) research methods. He was a postdoc at NREL from 2010 to 2012 with David Ginley, after obtaining his Ph.D. in Physics from Oregon State University with Janet Tate. Since 2012, Andriy has been a staff scientist at NREL working with students and postdoc on multiple research projects, and developing the HTEM database.

Click here to find out more at Andriy's personal web page

Adele Tamboli is a scientist at National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) with a joint appointment at the Colorado School of Mines (CSM). Her research focuses on understanding cation disorder in II-IV-V2 semiconductors, which have the potential to complement better-known III-V semiconductors in a wide variety of applications ranging from photovoltaics to solid state lighting, using both high-throughput experimental (combinatorial) research methods and high quality epitaxial growth methods. She also works on integration of III-V materials with Si for high efficiency multijunction solar cells. She was a postdoc in Applied Physics at Caltech and received her Ph.D. in Materials from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Sage Bauers is a scientist at National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). His research focus is experimental synthesis and characterization of new and emerging inorganic materials for electronics and energy applications. He is particularly interested in using thin film systems to stabilize compounds inaccessible to bulk approaches. He completed his Ph.D. in materials chemistry at the University of Oregon under Professor David Johnson, joined NREL as a postdoc in 2017 working with Andriy Zakutayev, and transitioned to staff in March 2020.

Annie Greenaway is a scientist at National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), focused on the synthesis and characterization of Mg-based II-IV-V2 semiconductors, particularly MgSnN2, as well photoelectrochemistry. For her Ph.D., Annie worked with Professor Shannon Boettcher at the University of Oregon on low-cost routes to III-V semiconductors. She started at NREL as a postdoc in 2018 working with Adele Tamboli and Steve Christensen, and transitioned to staff in May 2020.

Brooks Tellekamp is a scientist at NREL studying highly crystalline inorganic materials for applications in LEDs, photovoltaics, power electronics, neuromorphic computing, and electronics operating in harsh conditions. He is interested in understanding and manipulating the integration of dissimilar materials to manipulate and access new functional properties of materials. He came to NREL in March 2018 as a postdoctoral researcher after obtaining his PhD in Electrical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology where he studied oxides for neuromorphic computing in the lab of Dr. Alan Doolittle.

Karen Heinselman is a scientist at NREL in the area of material characterization. She joined NREL as a postdoc in December 2017, after completing her PhD in III-N growth via CVD at Cornell University. She currently performs high-throughput combinatorial sputtering and characterization of ternary nitrides, such as ZnSnN2 and Mg3SbN.

Su Jeong Heo joined NREL as a postdoc in January 2019 after finishing her Ph.D at the University of Connecticut on the stability of electrode and electrolyte materials for fuel cells. She is currently focusing on proton-conducting electrolyte and electrode materials for solid oxide cells by high-throughput combinatorial deposition and characterization.

Dennice Roberts received her PhD in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder, doing research at NREL on semiconducting metal sulfide compounds for energy applications. Now as a postdoc at NREL focused on III-V materials, she continues developing part-time novel synthetic approach to generate layered 2D sulfide heterostructures via combinatorial RF sputtering.

Paul Todd completed his PhD in Materials Chemistry from Colorado State University where he developed low-temperature solid-state syntheses of complex oxides, sulfides and nitrides. Paul started his post-doc in May 2020 and has continued his work in solid-state syntheses, targeting metastable ternary nitride materials for energy and electronic applications.

Shahadat Sohel is a postdoctoral researcher at National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). His current research focuses on developing electronic devices and sensors based on wide bandgap semiconductors applicable for harsh operating conditions. He received his doctorate in electrical and computer engineering from The Ohio State University in 2020 working with Prof. Siddharth Rajan. While pursuing his doctorate, he worked on developing high frequency, RF power amplifiers for high-linearity applications based on III-Nitride materials.

Keisuke Yazawa is a postdoc at NREL and Colorado School of Mines, after receiving his PhD in Materials Engineering from Purdue University in 2020. He is currently focusing on wurtzite nitride ferroelectric thin film deposition and characterization using high-throughput techniques.

Xing Sun received her PhD degree in Materials Engineering at Purdue University and currently works as a postdoc in National Renewable Energy Laboratory. With cross-disciplinary background, she specializes in crystal growth and control, microstructure design, materials characterization, and exploration of structure-property correlation, especially in epitaxial (composite & alloy) films and nanostructures applied for energy and data storage as well as neuromorphic computing systems.

Rebecca Smaha joined NREL as a Director’s Postdoctoral Fellow in 2021 and is investigating novel metastable ternary nitrides for potential multiferroic applications. She received an A.B. in chemistry from Princeton University and then performed solid state chemistry research at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid on a Fulbright grant. Rebecca obtained her Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry at Stanford University in the lab of Prof. Young Lee, studying synthetic minerals with magnetically frustrated kagome lattices that are candidates to host a quantum spin liquid ground state using various X-ray and neutron scattering techniques.

John Mangum received his Ph.D. in Material Science from Colorado School of Mines in 2019 studying structure-process-property relationships of metastable oxides and nitrides for energy applications. He joined NREL as a postdoctoral researcher in 2020 and has worked on multiple research projects including high-efficiency III-V photovoltaics, III-V based LEDs and lasers, reliability and degradation of Si based PV modules, and now combinatorial sputtering and characterization of ternary nitride thin films. He also enjoys anything to do with electron microscopy.

Valerie Jacobson is a Ph. D. student in Materials Science at Colorado School of Mines studying optical properties of functional ceramics under Dr. Geoff Brennecka since 2016. Her current work involves research in photoferroics and entropy stabilized oxides as thin films synthesized via pulsed laser deposition at NREL.

Rachel Sherbondy is a Ph. D. student in the Materials Science Program at the Colorado School of Mines. She is researching complex oxides and nitrides with functional properties such as ferroelectrics, dielectrics, and piezoelectrics.

Rekha Schnepf is a Ph. D. student in Materials Science at the Colorado School of Mines studying site disorder in ternary semiconductors. She is currently working on understanding the effects of cation site disorder on the optoelectronic properties of ZnGeP2. She received a B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 2016.

Danny Drury is a Ph.D. student in Materials Science at the Colorado School of Mines, and he earned his B.S. in Ceramic Engineering from Missouri S&T in 2018. He currently focuses on the growth and characterization of ferroelectric nitrides, specifically Sc doped AlN films.