Leading material development at Spark Thermionics• Technical lead for semiconductor electrodes; surface modification and characterization; development and commissioning of new UHV surface characterization systems• Technical lead for microfabrication projects, including cleanroom work and management of external microfabrication efforts • Leading SBIR projects as PI from the proposal stage through successful Phase II grant• Leading collaboration with researchers at the Molecular Foundry at LBNL, including proposals• Material characterization; composition and surface analysis; failure analysis • Development of novel electrochemical fabrication method for refractory materials

Lead researcher on semiconductor materials at Spark Thermionics• Design, fabrication, and testing of semiconductor electrodes, including electrical, optical, and surface characterization, and COMSOL FEA simulations• Lead researcher on government contract, contributing to government project proposals• Development and testing of ultra-high vacuum systems for material modification and characterization• Collaborating with researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; various electron microscopy and cleanroom projects

Understanding Interfacial Carrier Recombination and Charge Transfer in Photocathodes for CO2 Reduction:* synthesis of oxide semiconductors by sol-gel and hydrothermal methods, and sputter deposition* characterization of synthesized material by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and absorption spectroscopy (UV-Vis)* deposition of protective and catalytic layers as well as contacts to semiconductor electrodes, including atomic layer deposition (ALD) and electron beam physical vapor deposition* design and manufacturing of electrochemical cells (CAD, CNC milling, 3D printing)* electrochemical characterization of the modified semiconductor electrodes, including photoelectrochemical impedance spectroscopy (PEIS), incident photon to converted electron experiments (IPCE, EQE), and product analysis by gas chromatography * characterization of semiconductor/catalyst electrode surfaces by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), contact potential difference measurements (CPD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and atomic force microscopy (AFM) * design of experimental setups to study transient photocurrent/photovoltage (TPC/TPV), ms-s scale transient absorption spectroscopy (msTAS), and phototransmission/photoreflectance in electrolytes, including LabVIEW control software* analysis of charge transfer mechanisms and dynamics in semiconductor electrodes by PEIS, msTAS, TPC/TPV

Graphene Transistors for Biosensing and Bioelectronics:* growth of graphene by chemical vapor deposition (CVD)* characterization of graphene layers by Raman spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy (AFM), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) * fabrication of solution-gated graphene transistor arrays, including photo- and electron beam lithography and physical vapor deposition of metal contacts (PVD) in cleanrooms, wire bonding and encapsulation* design of experimental setups for low-noise transistor current recording (electronics, LabView) * electrochemical characterization of the graphene layers and transistors, including electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), in-liquid Hall effect, and modelling of the graphene-electrolyte interface (nextnano)* introduction of functional groups to the graphene surface by plasma and ozone treatments, self-initiated photografting and photopolymerization (SIPGP), and grafting of enzymes* detection of enzyme activity with solution-gated graphene transistors* cell culture (human embryonic kidney cells (HEK-293) and cardiac muscle cells (HL-1)) on graphene layers and transistors, including preparation of media, subculturing, and cryopreservation* detection of spontaneous and patch-clamp-induced cell activity with graphene transistors* numeric time-resolved modelling of the cell-transistor coupling