John Heron, Assistant Professor
Contact Phone: 734-763-6914
Address:
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Room 2030 H.H. Dow
2300 Hayward St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Email: jtheron@umich.edu
Biography
John studied Physics as an undergraduate at the University of California, Santa Barbara. As a graduate student he was awarded the NDSEG graduate fellowship and worked in the thin film complex oxide group of Professor Ramamoorthy Ramesh at the University of California, Berkeley. In 2013 John was awarded Ross N. Tucker Memorial Award. After earning his masters (2011) and doctoral (2013) degrees from the University of California Berkeley he began postdoctoral research at Cornell University under the co-mentorship of Professors Darrell Schlom and Dan Ralph.
John joined the Department of Materials Science and Engineering as an Assistant Professor in Winter 2016.
Graduate Researchers
Peter Meisenheimer
meisep@umich.edu
Peter’s research centers around discovering new ferroic states in disorder-driven materials. This includes synthesis and characterization of new, magnetic, entropy-stabilized oxides and device implementation and optimization of existing composite multiferroic systems. Peter graduated Cum Laude with a B.S. degree in Materials Science and Engineering, as well as minors in Chemistry and Applied Math, from the University of Washington in 2016. Beginning, in 2014, Peter spent two years working with Prof. Peter Pauzauskie on a number of research projects, including solid state cooling, thermal and optical modeling, and novel nanoparticle synthesis. Away from the lab, Peter enjoys painting and heavy metal, skiing and hiking, science fiction novels, and board games.
Nguyen Vu
nguyenvu@umich.edu
Education: Bachelor degree in Physics and education, Hanoi National University of Education, Vietnam
Research interest: I joined UM as graduate student in 2015. My research currently involves the growth and characterizaiton of high spin orbit oxide thin films and its potential in magnetic memory devices.
Steve Novakov
steveeee@umich.edu
Steve earned a BASc in Engineering Physics with a specialization in ECE and a minor in Commerce at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, in 2015. After gaining experience in the private sector developing electro-optic payloads for aircraft and a summer research term in an AMO laboratory, Steve came to UM to pursue research in solid state materials and devices, and will be investigating charge and spin transport properties of magnetic thin films in isolation and in heterostructures.
As with most graduate students, Steve earnestly enjoys experimenting with irregular sleep patterns and an assortment of nootropics, particularly caffeine. When he isn’t busy ablating assorted materials, Steve enjoys reading, programming and multifarious athletics.
Sieun Chae
sieun@umich.edu
Sieun earned a B.S. degree in Materials Science and Engineering from Yonsei University, South Korea, in 2015. Sieun spent 2 years working at Seoul National University and the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology, and earned a M.S. degree from Seoul National University in 2017. Sieun has experience in the synthesis of two-dimensional materials, nanoscale device integration, and DFT calculations. Sieun came to UM in 2017 and is interested in growing and characterizing complex metal oxide thin films and calculating the basic properties of these materials. In her free time, Sieun enjoys working out at the gym, swimming, watching dramas and shopping.
Matt Webb
webbmj@umich.edu
Matt earned a B.A. & an M.Sci. in Natural Sciences specializing in Materials Science from the University of Cambridge, UK, in 2020. For his master’s degree, Matt spent a year working on the growth and characterization of oxide materials for RRAM devices. Joining UM in 2020, Matt’s research will focus on the growth and characterization of high entropy oxides, as well as simulation of these materials using DFT calculations. He is co-advised by Prof. Emmanouil Kioupakis, MSE.
Outside of the lab, Matt enjoys going for long walks, playing guitar, Disney movies and looking at pictures of dogs on the internet.
Tony Chiang
chiangt@umich.edu
Tony earned a B.S. degree in Physics at National Sun Yat-Sen University in Taiwan. He joined UM in 2019. His research focuses on materials growth and characterization for next generation magnetic devices. Tony enjoys skateboarding, photography, watching movies and dramas in his free time.
Undergraduate Students
Tim Leonard
Tim is currently a fourth year undergraduate in the MSE department pursuing a minor in mathematics. His research interests have included synthesis of both bulk and thin film entropy stabilized oxides and searching for metal insulator transition materials as well as Spin Hall effect materials.