PHATE Research Group

Shamberger Lab

Team


Research Opportunities:  Graduate & Undergraduate Researchers

The group currently has openings for qualified and enthusiastic postdocs and graduate students (starting Summer/Fall 2023) and for motivated undergraduate students.  Feel free to contact the PI directly (include a CV and brief statement of interest) to express interest in joining the research group.

Postdoctoral Researchers

 

Fatima Jardali

Electrical and Thermal Responses of Vanadium Dioxide under an Electrical Bias
(2023 – present)

  • Thin films growth & characterization
  • Sputter deposition, Plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition, Physical vapor deposition
  • Device fabrication & electro-thermal characterization
  • Ion insertion/extraction into/from host materials

Graduate Students

Rebeca M. Gurrola

NSF GRFP Fellow
Graduate Student (PhD)
Neuromorphic Devices and Systems Based on Metal-Insulator Transitions
(2019 – present)

  • Thin film growth and characterization
  • XRD techniques
  • Device Fabrication
  • VO2 defect engineering via ion irradiation

Favorite movie quote: “We’re gonna need a bigger boat”

Hobbies: Reading, fud, travel

Email: rgurrola1 {at} tamu.edu
 

Sourav Chakravarty

Graduate Student (PhD)
Desorption and Evaporation in Zeolite Composite Beds
(2019 – present)

  • High energy density desorption-based thermal energy storage.
  • Solution-processing of Adsorbent Composites
  • Nucleation and undercooling in liquid metals

Email: sourav93 {at} tamu.edu
 

Carlos Lago

Graduate Student (PhD)
Nucleation of Reversible Thermoelastic Martensitic Transformation in Small Particles
(2020 – present)

  • Thermomagnetic Measurements of Heusler alloy microparticle to investigate nucleation potency distributions
  • Ion irradiation effects on phase transformations
  • Dynamics of phase transitions under unsteady thermal boundary conditions

Email: jclago {at} tamu.edu

Sophia Ahmed

Graduate Student (PhD)
Salt Hydrate Thermal Energy Storage Materials
(2020 – present)

  • Design of Eutectic Salt Hydrate Materials Systems
  • Stability of materials with aging and cycling
  • Nucleation kinetics in salt hydrates and salt hydrate eutectics

Email: ahmed.sophia97 {at} tamu.edu
 

Denali Ibbotson

Graduate Student (PhD)
Salt Hydrates Eutectic Thermal Energy Storage Materials
(2021 – present)

  • Development and Characterization of Eutectic Salt Hydrate Systems
  • Nucleation Mechanisms in Salt Hydrates

Email: dibbotson {at} tamu.edu
 

Mason Shoalmire

Graduate Student (MS)
Heat Transfer through Ceramic Interfaces and Reaction Layers
(2022 – present)

  • Thermal Transport in High Temperature Materials and Interfaces
  • Multiphysics simulation
  • Numerical evaluation and design of thermal energy storage modules

Email: masonshoal {at} tamu.edu
 

Chase Somodi

Graduate Student (PhD)
Chemical Control of Plastic Crystals for Tunable Thermal Energy Storage
(2022 – present)

  • Investigation of the barocaloric effect in plastic crystals
  • Chemical structure’s impact on plastic crystal phase transitions
  • Magnitude and reversibility of phase transitions in plastic crystals

Email: csomodi {at} tamu.edu
 

Fenia Andreou

Graduate Student (PhD)* (Co-advised)
Neuromorphic Materials and Devices
(2022 – present)

Email: fenia_andreou {at} tamu.edu
 

Yeonju Yu

Graduate Student (PhD)
Non-linear Electronic Materials and Devices
(2023 – present)

  • Thermal engineering of non-linear electronic materials and devices

Email: leahyj109 {at} tamu.edu
 

Sarah McQuaid

Graduate Student (MS)
Thermal Properties of Bonds Between Dissimilar Materials at High Temperatures
(2023 – present)

  • Thermal Transport in High Temperature Materials and Interfaces

Email: smcquaid {at} tamu.edu
 

Lucas Oelkers

Graduate Student (PhD)
Impedance of Composite Thermal Energy Storage Materials
(2023 – present)

  • Characterization of transient thermal response in composite PCMs

Email: lucasoelkers {at} tamu.edu
 

Jenny Chong

Graduate Student (MS)
Electrothermal Design of Non-linear Neuromorphic Components
(2023 – present)

  • Characterization of transient thermal behavior in neuromorphic oscillators
  • Multiphysics simulation

Email: jenchong {at} tamu.edu

Undergraduate Students

 

Veronica Gonzalez Fernandez

Undergraduate, Senior (MSEN)
Measurement of Phase Change Materials Dynamics
(2022 – present)
 

Alex Foncerrada

Undergraduate, Senior (MSEN)
Materials Informatics of Plastic Crystals
(2022 – present)
 

Leo Toro Figueira

Undergraduate, Junior (MSEN)
Electrical Characterization of Metal Insulator Devices
(2023 – present)
 

Gwyneth Svatek

Undergraduate, Junior (MSEN)
Wetting Characteristics of Porous Aluminum
(2023 – present)
 

Mya Williams

Undergraduate, Junior (MSEN)
Nucleation in Erythritol
(2023 – present)
 

Lindsay Ford

Undergraduate, Junior (MSEN)
Calorimetry of Plastic Crystals
(2023 – present)
 

Bryan Duong

Undergraduate, Junior (MSEN)
Electrical Characterization of Metal Insulator Devices
(2023 – present)

Group: Through the Ages

Post-Doc Alumni

Amy Bolon: PD Researcher. Transitioning Salt Hydrate Phase Change Materials (2017) {Currently with Enterprise Products}

Eunju Jung: PD Researcher. Effectiveness of Active Learning Pedagogies in an Introductory Materials Science Class (2015-2016) {Currently PD at Univ Indiana – Bloomington}

Graduate Student Alumni

Adelaide Bradicich: PhD. Electrothermally-Induced Spatial Inhomogeneities in Nonlinear Electronic Materials
(2018 – 2023)

Alison Hoe: PhD. Characterization and Modification of Thermal Response through Intentional Design of Phase Change Material Composites
(2017 – 2022)

Wenting (Ella) Mo: MS. Desorption and Evaporation of Liquid Water Recharged Zeolite-Polymer Composites
(2020 – 2022)

Aashik Shreshtha: MS. Numerical Simulation and Design of Hybrid Oscillating Heat Pipe – Phase Change Materials for Radiator Panels
(2019 – 2021)

Michael Deckard: MS. Numerical Simulation of Heat Transfer in PCM Heatsink Structures
(2017 – 2021)

Yijia Zhang: PhD. Size Effects on Thermoelastic Martensitic Transformations in Heusler Alloys
(2015 – 2020)

Aliya Yano: MS. Effect of Chemical Doping on Metal-Insulator Phase Transition in VO2
(2018 – 2020)

Tim Brown: PhD. Engineering Hysteresis and Non-Diffusive Phase Transformations in Magnetocaloric (Mn,Fe)2(P,Si) Alloys for Magnetic Refrigeration Applications
(2014 – 2019) {Currently Postdoc at TAMU w/ Stan Williams}

Heidi Clarke: PhD. Local Characterization of Resistance Switching Phenomena in Transition Metal Oxides
(2014 – 2019) {Currently with Samsung}

Emily Emmons: MS. Corrosion of Common Heat Exchanger Materials by Lithium Nitrate Trihydrate
(2015 – 2017) {Currently with Samsung}

UG Alumni

Jose Cortes: “Dynamic response of PCM under time-variant loading”, TAMU (2020 – 2023).

Emilio Morales-Cortazar: “Thermal Conductivity Measurements via 3 Omega Method”, TAMU (2021-2023).

Colton Brietzke: “Numerical Simulation of PCM Dynamics”, TAMU (2022).

Gabby Garza: “Thermal conductivity of molten salt hydrates”, TAMU (2021-2022).

Albert Franke: Robust cycling in liquid-hydrated zeolite-PVA composites (2021-2022).

Nurbek Ozganov: Processing of zeolite thick films (2021-2022).

Nicole Person: Irradiation of VO2 devices, Sandia National Lab Summer Internship 2021 (2021-2022).

Drew Worthy: Machine Learning of Material Thermophysical Properties (2019-2021).

Ezra Duke: Heat Transfer in Zeolite Powder Beds, Summer 2019 REU (2021).

Natalie Patton: Energy and Power Density of TES modules, Summer 2021 REU (2021).

Fabiola Alamo: Thermal Transport in Liquid Salt Hydrates (2019-2021).

Andrew Balog: Metal Insulator transitions in doped VO2 films/ systems (2018-2021).

Haley Jones: Development of Salt hydrate PCM eutectics (2018-2021).

Carolina Martinez: Characterization of Phase Change Dynamics in a Slab (2019-2020).

Hunter Harris: Thermophysical Properties of Salt Hydrates (2019-2020).

Julia Billman: MFM Imaging of Magnetic Domains in Magnetocaloric Alloys (2017-2020)

Nathan Turner: Synthesis and Characterization of Ternary Salt Hydrate Eutectics/ Machine Learning Models of Thermophysical Properties (2017-2020)

Jessica Paredez: UG Researcher (ECEN). Synthesis and Properties of Salt Hydrates (2018-2019)

Jenny Gosney: Summer 2019 REU. Isothermal Transformation Kinetics in Salt Hydrate PCMs (2019)

John Moynihan: UG Researcher (CHEN). Measuring Reversibility and Solidification Rates in Salt Hydrates (2017-2018)

Daniel Galvan: UG Researcher (CHEN). Assessing the Performance of Fe2P Alloys Under Various Magnetic Refrigeration Cycle (2015-2019)

Laura Deremo: UG Researcher (ECEN). Failure in Electrical Resistance Switches (2017-2018)

Gabriela Lammoglia: Summer 2018 NextGen Intern. Materials Design of Magnetocaloric Alloys (2018)

Nandha Ramasamy: UG Researcher (MEEN). Magnetic Force Microscopy of MCE materials (2018)

Thomas Jordan: UG Researcher (MEEN). Dissipative Neuromorphic Materials(2017-2018)

Jonathan van Buskirk: UG Researcher (CHEM). Hysteresis in MCE Materials (2018)

Sara Wonner: Summer 2018 REU, Nucleation in Salt Hydrate PCMs (2018)

Joseph Anderson: UG Researcher (PHYS). 3D Tomography of Conductive Filaments (2018) UG Honors thesis {Currently PhD at Purdue Univ., IN}

Aaron Garcia: UG Researcher (MEEN). Thermophysical Properties of Salt Hydrates (2018)

Molly Jones: REU Summer Intern. Phase transformations in Heusler alloy thick films (summer 2017).

Sunita Kumari: IITK Summer Intern. Structure of insulating composites (summer 2017).

Elizabeth Yee: UG Researcher (CHEN). Decomposition of Ammonia Salts (2017)

Sarah Hammock: UG Researcher (CHEN). 3D cAFM Imaging of Conductive Filaments in HfO2 Resistive Switching Devices(2015-2017) UG Honors thesis

Bill Caraway: UG Researcher (MEEN). Imaging Phase Transitions in VO2 particles (2016-2017)

Nick Gripp: UG Researcher (CHEM). Decomposition of Ammonia Salts (2016-2017)

Ben Musil: UG Researcher (CHEM). Decomposition of Ammonia Salts (2016)

Siddharth Srivastava: IITK Summer Intern. FEM Simulation of Resistance Switching Phenomena (2016)

Tyler Buffington: UG Researcher (MEEN). Thermodynamic Efficacy of Irreversible Magnetocaloric Effect Cycles (2015-2016) UG Honors thesis

Adam McClellan: UG Researcher (ISEN). Materials Stability of Thermal Energy Storage Materials (2015-2016)

Xander Majek: UG Researcher (PHYS). Electrical Resistance Switching in Sputtering Grown HfO2 Devices (2015-2016)

Erika Salzman: HS Researcher. Undercooling in Mg(NO3)2 hydrates (2015-2016)  {Currently UG at Caltech}

Yasushi Mizuno: UG Researcher (MEEN). Entropy of Fusion in Low Melting Point Alloys (2014-2015)

Taylor Messinger: UG Researcher (MMET). Thermal Properties of Salt Hydrate (2015)

Joshua Murley: UG Researcher (CHEN). Indirect Entropy Measurement in Magnetocaloric Effect Materials (2014-2015)
Best presentation award at UG Gulf Coast Research Symposium

Shelby Turner: UG Researcher (ECEN). Electrical Resistance Switching in HfO2 Dielectrics (Spring 2015)

Temi Balogun: UG Researcher (MEEN). Electrical Resistance Switching in HfO2 Dielectrics (Fall 2014)

Trey Torno: UG Researcher (CHEN). Magnetic Domain Structures in Magnetocaloric Heusler Alloys Near the FOPT. (Summer 2014-Fall 2014)
TAMU USRG Fellowship

Anna Rubin: UG Researcher (MEEN). Salt Hydrate Thermal Energy Storage Gels. (Summer 2014)

Pawan Bhandari: UG Researcher (MEEN). Thermophysical Properties of Low Melting point Alloys (2014)