Education:

• Fellow, Correlated Materials, ORNL, Oak Ridge, TN, Present    
• Postdoc (Condensed Matter Physics), Ames Laboratory, Ames, IA, 2007  
• Ph.D. (Solid State Chemistry), McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, 2005
• B.S. (Solid State Chemistry), McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, 2001

Awards:

• Wigner Fellow, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Dec 2007-Present
• Natural Science & Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Doctoral Scholarship, McMaster University, Dec 2005-Aug 2006
• Ontario Graduate Scholarship, McMaster University, Sept 2004-Aug 2005
• The Shell Canada Scholarships in Science & Technology, McMaster University, Sept 2003-Aug 2004
• Natural Science & Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Undergraduate Summer Research Award, McMaster University, 2001
• Canada Millennium Scholarship, McMaster University, Jan 2000
• Ontario Scholar Award, North York Board of Education, Toronto, 1996

Research Experience:

• Dec 16, 2007 – present, Wigner Fellow, ORNL
  • A member of David Mandrus’ Correlated Electron Materials Group, at Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering
• Synthesis of interesting superconducting materials (Fe-based) and characterizing their structural, magnetic and transport properties. A certain level of exploration is used to make new or improved superconductors.
• Feb 1, 2006 – Dec 14, 2007, Postdoc, Ames Lab.
  • Joined Paul C. Canfield’s research group at Dept. of Physics & Astronomy at ISU
  • High temperature flux technique was used to grow a number of sizable crystals, including RVSb3 (R = La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Gd, Tb, Dy), Y2NiB10, R3Co4Sn13 (R = La, Ce, Pr, Sm, Gd), V15Sb18, RNiB4 (R = Dy, Ho, Er, Yb, Lu), CeAuxSi2 (x = 2, 4), RMn2Al10 (R = La, Gd), and R2T3Zn14 (R = Y, Gd; T = Fe, Co, Ni) materials.
  • Characterized materials using powder and single-crystal x-ray diffraction, magnetic susceptibility and transport measurements.
• Sept 1, 2001 – Sept 25, 2005, Ph.D., McMaster University
  • Completed a Ph.D. thesis entitled “Magnetic and Electronic Transitions in Nd1-xTiO3: A Study of Correlation Effects”, under the supervision of John E. Greedan, at Chemistry Dept.
  • Gained experience in polycrystalline sample syntheses using sealed Mo-crucible and quartz/pyrex. Also, single crystal preparation was made using numerous techniques such as Bridgeman, Czochralski (pulling from a melt), lamp-image furnace (zone melting). The crystals grown and characterized were those of Nd1-xTiO3 for vacancy levels of x ~ 0, 0.04, 0.10, 0.15, and 0.20.

Publications: