Principal Investigator
Yunqiu Kelly Luo
Email: [email protected]
Office: SSC 221
[CV] [Google Scholar] [Faculty Page]
Kelly is a Gabilan Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy, Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at the University of Southern California since 2023. She was previously a Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow and Honorary Kavli Fellow at Cornell University studying spin torque dynamics in van der Waals magnets from 2019 to 2022. She received her Ph.D. in physics at the Ohio State University studying information transduction between spintronic, photonic, and magnetic states in two-dimensional hybrid systems in 2019. She obtained undergraduate degree in physics at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in 2012.
Postdocs
This could be you!
Ph.D. Students
Derek Bergner
Email: [email protected]
[CV] [Google Scholar]
Derek is a rising 3rd year PhD student at the University of Southern California. He received his Masters in physics at California State University of Long Beach (CSULB) studying the electronic band structure of Dirac semimetals and layered ferromagnetic materials through Angle Resolved Photoemission Spectroscopy (ARPES). He also obtained his undergraduate degree in physics at CSULB while fabricating graphene heterostructure devices for novel electron transport measurements.
Ethan Berg
Email: [email protected]
Ethan is a rising 2nd year PhD student at the University of Southern California and a Santec Fellow in Physics. He received a B.S in Physics with a specialization in Materials Physics from the University of California, San Diego studying spin transport across two-dimensional thin films using ferromagnetic resonance. He enjoys making soups and croissants in his spare time.
Andrew Koerner
Email: [email protected]
Andrew is a rising 2nd year PhD student at the University of Southern California. He obtained his Bachelor of Science in Physics from Lehigh University. His past research experiences include organic materials for nonlinear optics and Scanning Tunneling Spectroscopy (STM) of 2D materials. A fun fact about him is he plays the drums.
Orion Smedley
Email: [email protected] | [email protected]
Orion is a rising 5th year PhD student at Cornell University working closely with the USC team developing ultrafast Sagnac MOKE interferometry. He received his Bachelor’s Degree in Physics at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). In his spare time, he enjoys juggling and ice skating. He currently holds multiple world records for juggling related events.
Xiaokun Yu
Email: [email protected]
Xiaokun is a rising 2nd year PhD at the University of Southern California. She obtained her undergraduate degree in physics at Johns Hopkins University studying ferromagnetic insulators and a master’s degree in computer science at Columbia University with an emphasis on computational sciences. She has a cat named Dirac and Van der Waals.
Undergraduate Researchers
Kyle Li
Email: [email protected]
Kyle is a rising senior undergraduate student majoring in Physics, Computer Science, and Applied Mathematics. He develops new methods for exfoliation and transfer of large-area 2D magnetic heterostructures, including Au-assisted exfoliation and dry-transfer techniques.
Mowen Zhao
Email: [email protected]
Mowen is a rising senior at USC majoring in Physics. He focuses on micromagnetic simulations of 2D magnet/topological insulator heterostructures, bridging scanning X-ray microscopy and spin dynamics modeling. He also co-developed the lab’s SOP for exfoliation and stacking.
Isaac Mottern
Email: [email protected]
Isaac is a rising sophomore at USC majoring in Physics. He works on atomic force microscopy characterization and manipulation of 2D magnetic materials, with applications in device fabrication and heterostructure interface engineering.
Hongsheng ‘Ethan’ Zhao
Email: [email protected]
Ethan Zhao is a sophomore at the University of Southern California, majoring in Physics and Computer Science. He is passionate about exploring the intersection of theoretical concepts and computational methods. Ethan looks forward to engaging in research, refining his technical skills, and contributing to innovative projects in both fields.
Eric Huang
Email: [email protected]
Eric is a sophomore at the University of Southern California, majoring in Computer Engineering and Applied Mathematics. He is eager to deepen his understanding of physics and explore its diverse applications. He plans to pursue a masters.
Bruce Zhang
Email: [email protected]
Bruce is a freshman undergraduate majoring in Physics and Computer Science at the University of Southern California. He looks forward to learning cutting-edge physics knowledge, gaining insights into various experimental operations, and contributing to lab research.
Group Alumni
Alejandro Reyes
Email: [email protected]
Alejandro is current a graduate student in the Physics PhD program at the University of California, Riverside. During his senior year as a Physics major student at the University of Southern California, he worked on developing high-quality van der Waals heterostructures and learning about optics setups.
Serena Liu
Email: [email protected]
Serena is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University. As an undergraduate Physics major at the University of Southern California, she contributed to building cryogenic and optical instrumentation and developed expertise in van der Waals heterostructure stacking and lab electronics.