The Materials of Microelectronics

Judy J. Cha is a professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Cornell University. Professor Cha received her Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Cornell University in 2009, working in Professor David A. Muller’s lab. She did her postdoctoral research in Professor Yi Cui’s group in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Stanford University. In 2013, Professor Cha joined the faculty at Yale University in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Science, where she spent nine years before joining the faculty at Cornell in 2022.

Research in Professor Cha’s lab focuses on synthesis and transport properties of topological and 2D nanomaterials and their phase transformations in order to understand the structure-electronic property relationships of these quantum nanomaterials. Professor Cha’s work on topological and 2D nanomaterials started in 2010 as a postdoc at Stanford University; since then, her group has expanded the class of topological nanomaterials under study, with a particular focus on achieving nanowires of topological superconductors and topological metals, which have implications for robust quantum computing and low-dissipation electronics.

Aric Shorey has held various roles in the technology industry since 2000. Aric began his career at Optical Coating Laboratory Inc. as a research engineer. In 2002, he moved to QED Technologies/CMC as a senior research engineer/program manager. Aric then joined Corning Incorporated in 2008 as a commercial technology manager. In 2018, he was appointed VP of New Business Development at Mosaic Microsystems. Most recently, Aric has served as Director of Glass Technology at Menlo Micro since 2021.

David Muller is the Samuel B. Eckert Professor of Engineering in the School of Applied and Engineering Physics at Cornell University as well as the co-director of the Kavli Institute at Cornell for Nanoscale Science. Professor Muller’s current research interests include the atomic-scale characterization and control of matter for applications in energy storage and conversion, exploring new phases of two-dimensional materials that cannot exist in the bulk, and developing a new generation of probability-current detectors and algorithms for measuring physical properties in an electron microscope.

Professor Muller is a graduate of the University of Sydney and received a Ph.D. from Cornell University in the field of Physics. As a scientist at Bell Labs, he applied his research on imaging single atoms and atomic-scale spectroscopy to determine the physical limits on how small a transistor can be made. Professor Muller’s work more generally has focused on the development of scanning transmission electron microscopy and spectroscopy as quantitative tools for atomic-resolution materials analysis and its application to unraveling connections between electronic-structure changes on the atomic scale and the macroscopic behavior of materials. This includes systems as diverse as fuel cells, batteries, turbine blades, and two-dimensional superconductors.

Professor Muller is a fellow of the American Physical Society and the Microscopy Society of America as well as recipient of the DGE’s Ernst Ruska Prize, the MSA Burton Medal, and the MAS Duncumb Award.

Frank Wise was a member of the technical staff at Bell Laboratories before coming to Cornell University. Professor Wise joined the Cornell faculty in 1988 and was named an NSF Presidential Young Investigator in 1989. From 2007 to 2011, he was director of the School of Applied and Engineering Physics. Since 2017, Professor Wise has been director of the Cornell Center for Materials Research.

Tom Pennell has been a staff member at the Cornell NanoScale Facility (CNF) since 2014. He has conducted research at the CNF since 2004 as both a graduate student and an industrial user. Tom’s specific areas of expertise include thin film deposition, plasma etching, flow measurement, biomedical device design and development, neurosurgery, neurosurgical devices, animal and clinical study design and execution, sterilization, biocompatibility, medical device regulatory affairs, and MEMS.