People

Principle Investigator

Prof. Andrej Singer – asinger@cornell.edu 

Associate Professor, David Croll Sesquicentennial Faculty Fellow

Andrej Singer received his Ph.D. (2012) in Physics from the University of Hamburg, Germany in the lab of Prof. Edgar Weckert and Prof. Ivan Vartanyants, following a Physics diploma from the University of Muenster, Germany. He was then as a postdoctoral researcher with Prof. Oleg Shpyrko at the University of California, San Diego. Dr. Singer’s research explores how materials evolve under non-equilibrium conditions, spanning quantum materials to applied energy systems. His group develops and applies coherent X-ray scattering techniques at synchrotrons and free-electron lasers to visualize structural and electronic changes in real time, offering insights into both fundamental physics and practical device operation.

Postdoctoral Fellows

Oleg Gorobtsov – og62@cornell.edu

Oleg received an M.S. in Physics from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, and then a Ph.D. in Physics from DESY and Hamburg University. He is working on free electron laser science, coherent imaging of battery materials and mesocrystals.

 

Timo Fuchs – tfuchs@cornell.edu

Timo received his Ph.D. in Physics from Kiel University in the group of Prof. Olaf M. Magnussen. His research focuses on studying the atomic-scale surface structure of electrocatalysts, which are used in electrolyzers or fuel cells. To study these systems under electrochemical reactions conditions he employs various operando surface x-ray scattering and spectroscopy techniques. He is currently developing new operando X-ray techniques to study thin film transition metal oxides such as RuO2 and CoMn2O4. Timo is a Kavli Postdoctoral Fellow.

Graduate Students

PortraitZiming Shao – zs347@cornell.edu

Ziming is a Ph.D. candidate in the Materials Science and Engineering department, specializing in x-ray characterization techniques and thin film science. His research leverages synchrotron-based x-ray imaging to investigate nanoscale strain, phase transitions, and structural nanotextures in strain-engineered quantum materials.

PortraitYifei Sun – ys876@cornell.edu

Yifei is a Ph.D. candidate in the Materials Science and Engineering department. She received her B.A. in Environmental Studies from Macalester College, MN in 2017. She is currently working on operando coherent x-ray diffractive imaging on energy storage materials.

PortraitBenjamin Gregory- bg436@cornell.edu

Ben is a Ph.D. candidate in the Physics department. He is currently studying the structure distortions in transition metal oxide thin films using resonant x-ray diffraction and 3D reciprocal space mapping.

 

PortraitSaptarshi Das- sd724@cornell.edu

Saptarshi is a Ph.D. candidate in the Materials Science and Engineering department. Saptarshi received his M.S. in Materials Science from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur. He is currently working on understanding degradation mechanisms in alkaline fuel cells using operando synchrotron x-ray based methods.

PortraitRylan Fernandes rcf95@cornell.edu

Rylan is a Ph.D. candidate in the Materials Science and Engineering department. Rylan received his B.Tech. in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee. He is currently working on studying displacive phase transformations in transition metal oxide thin films using ultra-fast time resolved x-ray diffraction.

 

Master Students

PortraitMark Iheanyi Nwadiuko min22@cornell.edu

Mark Nwadiuko is an M.S. student in the Materials Science and Engineering department. Mark received his B.S. in Materials Science & Engineering from Cornell University. He is currently working on understanding the anisotropic electronic properties of NaCoO₂ using x-ray diffraction and IV spectroscopy.

PortraitSimon Yang hy642@cornell.edu

Simon is an M.S. student in the Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) Department. Simon received his B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from National Taiwan University of Science and Technology. He is currently working on computing the 3D pair distribution function for quantum materials.

PortraitLeyan Zhu – lz589@cornell.edu

Leyan is an M.S. student in the Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) Department. He received his B.A. in New Energy Science and Engineering from Xiamen University. His research focuses on using synchrotron-based X-ray imaging to investigate phase transitions in energy materials and quantum materials.

 

Undergraduate Students

PortraitJeff Hodgson- jwh293@cornell.edu

Jeff is a senior in Materials Science and Engineering originally from Rochester, NY. He is working on interpreting reciprocal space maps from thin film quantum materials.

 

Alumni

Postdoctoral Scholars

  • Anita Verma
  • Jakob Gollwitzer

Graduate students

  • Jason Huang – Ph.D. (moved on to Sandia National Laboratories)
  • Aileen Lou – Ph.D. (moved on to Argonne National Laboratory)

Master Students

  • Ryan Bouck – MS
  • Daniel Weinstock – MS
  • Yumeng Song – MS
  • Stephanie Matson – MS (moved on to LLNL)
  • Wenxuan Qiu – MS (moved on to Applied Materials)
  • Ziyi Wang – MS (moved on to graduate program at Caltech)

Undergraduate Students

  • Anna Lin
  • Eve Lesburg
  • Dogan Tarik Karabay (moved on to graduate program at MIT)
  • Jiaruo Li (moved on to graduate program at MIT)
  • Raghav Kumar
  • Patrick Ding (moved on to graduate program at Northwestern)
  • Malia Okamura – Summer REU