‘Meet Our Graduates’
Meet Our Graduates: J. Scott Niezgoda
Nov. 12, 2021—Scott Niezgoda earned his Ph.D. in Dr. Sandra Rosenthal’s lab at Vanderbilt University, where he studied the photophysics and surface chemistry of quantum dots for application in solar cell technology. While at Vanderbilt, Scott was active in VINSE-lead community outreach to local public high schools in an effort to make college a distinct possibility for...
Meet Our Graduates: Danielle Richardson
Nov. 10, 2021—Danielle Richardson received her B.A. with a double major in Political Science and Medicine, Health, and Society (MHS) in 2020 from Vanderbilt University. As an undergraduate, Danielle was on the VINSE Technical Crew where she learned valuable skills in photolithography, etching, deposition, and metrology through her work in the cleanroom. She used these skills primarily for photolithography process...
Meet Our Graduates: Naiya Soetan
Oct. 26, 2021—Naiya Soetan earned her Ph.D. in 2018 from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. Her dissertation was titled “Impact of composition, shape, and environment on the physical and optoelectronic properties of cesium lead halide perovskite nanocrystals” and was done under the direction of Professor Rizia Bardhan. Her research investigated how post synthetic processing impacts...
Meet Our Graduates: Jeremy Beam
Oct. 19, 2021—Jeremy Beam received his Ph.D. in Chemistry in 2016 under the supervision of Dr. Charles Lukehart. His research was focused on confined-plume chemical deposition of transition metal borides and oxides initiated by pulsed, infrared tabletop lasers. He then accepted a post-doctoral position at the University of Saskatchewan and studied the coordination environment of transition metals...
Meet Our Graduates: Thomas Stilson
Oct. 16, 2021—Thomas Stilson received his B.E. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering in 2019 from Vanderbilt University. As an undergraduate, Thomas served on the VINSE Tech Crew, where he provided friendly after-hours support and a helping hand on equipment transfers during the new facility buildout. Thomas is now a research engineer at Utility Global, a startup in...
Meet Our Graduates: Claire Marvinney
Oct. 14, 2021—Before starting as a staff scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the new Quantum Information Science Section, Claire Marvinney joined the lab as an Intelligence Community Postdoctoral Fellow in 2018, working first in the Quantum Information Science Group and then in the Quantum Heterostructures Group under the direction of Benjamin Lawrie. In her previous work,...
Meet Our Graduates: Mengya Li
Oct. 11, 2021—Mengya Li earned her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at Vanderbilt University in August 2018 under the supervision of Dr. Cary Pint. Mengya’s research focus was on energy storage devices beyond lithium-ion during her PhD. She developed synthesis of several composite electrodes with specific architectures designed for high performance supercapacitors, sodium-ion batteries, and lithium-sulfur batteries. Mengya...
Meet Our Graduates: Justin Lynch
Oct. 6, 2021—Justin Lynch received his B.E. in Chemical Engineering in 2019 from Vanderbilt University, along with a minor in Nanoscience & Nanotechnology. As an undergraduate, Justin served on the VINSE Technical Crew during the summer and academic year, where his focus was on process development to optimize many of the services offered in the cleanroom. This...
Meet Our Graduates: Kofi Christie
Oct. 4, 2021—Kofi Christie earned his PhD in environmental engineering at Vanderbilt University in May 2020, where he worked to advance water treatment and desalination technologies for high-salinity wastewater. His thesis focused on expanding our understanding of membrane distillation through module-scale thermodynamic analysis and elucidation of the causes and effects of inorganic fouling on membrane surfaces. After receiving...
Meet Our Graduates: Brice Harkey
Sep. 30, 2021—Brice Harkey earned her MS in Interdisciplinary Materials Science from Vanderbilt University in December of 2018 under the supervision of Dr. Kelsey Hatzell. Brice studied polymer ceramic blends in various ratios to understand benefits on Li+ – ion battery applications. In tandem, she also studied structure-property relationships by understanding the effect of molecular weight tunability...