Postdocs
Nihar Sahoo
Title/Position
Postdoctoral Scholar
Nihar Ranjan Sahoo is a Postdoctoral Researcher working on tunable polaritonic materials and twisted metasurface structures under the MURI program. His current research focuses on isotope-engineered van der Waals crystals, plasmonic meta surfaces, and phononic moiré superlattice platforms for enhanced light–matter interactions. Nihar received his Ph.D. in Physics from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, where his work explored infrared photonics using in-plane hyperbolic van der Waals crystals.
Graduate Students
Ramchandra Bangari
Title/Position
Graduate Research Assistant
Ramachandra Bangari is a PhD candidate at the lab interested in optical properties of van der Waals materials. He is working on low symmetry van der Waals materials, such as, ReSe2, As2Te3, and GaTe, and van der Waals stacks, primarily twisted MoO3. He is mainly involved in experimental characterization of dielectric function and computational simulations of polariton propagation, but works on other projects as well. He obtained his Bachelor's and Master's in Physics from the Indian Institute of Science Bangalore.
Muhammad Jawad
Title/Position
Graduate Research Assistant
Muhammad Jawad is a PhD Student working in experimental condensed matter Physics. His research focuses on the fabrication, characterization, and simulation of anisotropic 2D materials for device applications. He earned his MS and BS degrees in Physics from Quaid-I-Azam University, Islamabad.
Mohit Pradhan
Title/Position
Graduate Research Assistant
Mohit Pradhan is PhD student interested in the field of experimental condensed matter and quantum nanophotonics. His projects currently involve experimental characterization along with optical properties simulation development for anisotropic semiconductor materials and thin films. He received his BS and BA from Knox College in Physics and Computer Science.
Maryam Vaghefi
Title/Position
Graduate Research Assistant
Maryam Vaghefi obtained her BSc and MSc degree in physics (Optic & laser) from Iran. She received her second MSc degree in physics (condensed matter) from Western Michigan University. She is currently PhD student in physics (condensed matter) at University of Iowa. She has experience working in Tandem Van de Graaff accelerator lab . She also worked with SEM and TEM . She also has experience in numerical modeling using programming software like Matlab and Comsol Multiphysics.
Hossein Zandipour
Title/Position
Graduate Research Assistant
Hossein Zandipour is currently a Graduate Research Assistant in the Quantum Nanophotonic Material Laboratory at the University of Iowa, with a passion for cutting-edge technology and its applications in the field of Experimental Condensed Matter. Hossein obtained his BS degree in Electrical Engineering and later pursued his academic interests in the field of Physics. Currently, he is involved in a range of projects related to the characterization, fabrication, and development of advanced materials, with a particular focus on Gallium Nitride (GaN) substrates and devices.
Undergraduate Researchers
Sophia Beers
Title/Position
Undergraduate Research Intern
Sophia is a high school research intern currently working on the exfoliation of 2D materials. She plans to pursue a degree in physics and is interested in researching particle physics.
Damien De Anda
Title/Position
Undergraduate Research Intern
Damien De Anda is an undergraduate research intern with physics and astronomy major, currently working on simulated models for materials such as GaN.
Joseph Mettenburg
Title/Position
Undergraduate Research Intern
Former Lab Members
Mehdi Assem
Title/Position
Undergraduate Researcher
Mehdi worked on developing mapping and polariton detection for GaN characterization.
Eric Biedke
Title/Position
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Eric Biedke is a fourth year undergraduate student majoring in Physics, Astronomy, and Math. He performs electromagnetic simulations of structures using CST Studio in order to analyze and optimize their optical properties. He has now graduated and gone on to graduate school in materials science and engineering.
Aditya Desai
Title/Position
Undergraduate Researcher
Aditya is an undergraduate in Physics and Astronomy. He is using infrared spectroscopy to evaluate the optical properties of materials, using a combination of experiments and numerical modelling. Aditya joined the group in Fall 2021, and has gone on to Harvard Law School.
John Horne
Title/Position
Undergraduate Researcher
John Horne is an Undergraduate majoring in Physics and Astronomy with a math minor. He is currently developing an infrared spectroscopy path in order to determine light-related properties about different materials in conjunction with computer spectroscopy applications. John was a group member throughout 2021, and has gone on to persue research interests in cosmology.
Raghunandan Iyer
Title/Position
Postdoctoral Scholar
Raghunandan B. Iyer is a Postdoctoral Research Scholar with an elaborate academic background. He earned his PhD from Iowa State University and holds a Master's degree from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. His research interests include tip-enhanced microscopy and spectroscopy, FTIR microscopy, and characterization techniques involving magnetic resonance detected phenomena. He is dedicated to applying these tools to deepen our understanding of light-matter interactions in materials and structures at the nanoscale.
Tristan McMillan
Title/Position
Undergraduate Researcher
Tristan McMillan is an undergraduate at the University of Iowa pursuing a Physics Bachelor of Science in the Physics and Astronomy department. Tristan is a member of Professor Folland's research group, working on developing an infrared spectroscopy setup in order to conduct research on materials for use in nanophotonics. This setup will be able to be used in a variety of manners distinct from those commercially available. Tristan plans to continue to work in laboratory and research settings throughout his undergraduate career and beyond
Siddharth Nandanwar
Title/Position
Undergraduate Researcher
Siddharth is an international sophomore student from India, majoring in Physics and a minor in Maths. He has aspirations bto get a PhD and do research after his undergradaute degree. He fabricated van-der-waals heterostructures as part of his Honors project, and is now at Boston College for his PhD
Tyler Nelson
Tyler is working on characterizing the pproperties of wide band gap semiconductor samples.
Brandon Stephanie
Title/Position
Undergraduate Research Intern
Brandon Stephanie is a BS Physics graduate from Universitas of iowa, and who is currently researching materials with III-V semiconductors.
Nathan Torvik
Nathan Torvik worked in the lab in the summer of 2022, working on the spectroscopy of topological 2D materials