Postdoctoral Associates

Ralf joined Heather Kulik’s group in the department of Chemical Engineering as a postdoctoral associate in November 2021. He received his Ph.D. from Graz University of Technology in Austria with Prof. Andreas Hauser. His Ph.D. focused on machine learning based local structure search. In the Kulik group, he is working on automated geometry optimization of transition metal complexes, the development of force fields and DFT corrections, and the data-driven discovery of novel mechnophores.

Kiarash is a postdoctoral associate in ASE Lab, where he is working on two projects: (1) to develop new strategies for cooling of ultra-high band-gap power electronics by studying different atomic configurations around the interface region, and (2) in collaboration with with Prof. Yang Shao-Horn at MIT, to study the effect of phonons on solid-state ionic diffusion and to find better performing solid-state ionic conductors to be used in next generation solid-state batteries and solid oxide fuel cells. Before joining ASE Lab, Kiarash was a postdoc at Colorado School of Mines working with Prof. Eric Toberer, where he obtained extensive experience in experimental materials discovery and solid-state synthesis for thermoeletric applications. Kiarash obtained his PhD in 2017 from Georgia Tech under the supervision of Prof. Asegun Henry, where they developed the interface conductance modal analysis (ICMA) method to study the solid-solid interfacial heat transfer.

Beside studying atoms, Kiarash enjoys hiking, rock-climbing and playing music.

Yeongsu joined Heather Kulik’s group in the department of Chemical Engineering as a postdoc in October 2021. She received her Ph.D. at Columbia University with Prof. Timothy Berkelbach. Her PhD focused on developing semiempirical methods for excited states of nanomaterials. In the Kulik group, she is working on machine-learning-guided adaptive methods for multi-resolution materials modeling.

Spencer Thomas Wyant is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT, working in the research lab of Asegun Henry, associate professor of mechanical engineering. Previously, he obtained his BS in chemical engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His current research focus is on the development of accurate interatomic potentials to model heat transport at solid-solid interfaces. In particular, he is developing different kinds of machine learning interatomic potentials to model interface systems like Ge-GaAs, Al-Al2O3, and AlN-GaN.

Emmanuel Lujan is a postdoctoral associate in the Julia Lab based in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at MIT. As part of CESMIX, he works on novel methods, composable software abstractions, and Julia tools to facilitate the development of large-scale material simulations, as well as to contribute to a better integration of the atomistic software ecosystem. In particular, he works on facilitating the learning of interatomic potentials and forces, ensuring fast execution, leveraging integration with state-of-the-art tools such as the latest developments in Julia around scientific machine learning (SciML), automatic differentiation (Enzyme.jl, Zygote.jl) and GPU abstractions (CUDA.jl).