Sample Programs

The appropriate curriculum for a graduate student in AS&T depends on the individual student’s scholarly goals. Curricula will usually bridge the traditional disciplines, with courses taken from several departments within mathematics, physics, chemistry and engineering. Typically, students will take two (2) or three (3) courses per semester the first two (2) years, and one (1) course per semester the remaining years, when the student concentrates on his or her dissertation research. In addition, students must enroll in one (1) seminar each semester.

The following sample programs illustrate hypothetical four-year course plans for the Ph.D. degree in topical areas that have been pursued by AS&T graduate students.

Student Publications

Moon, L.J.I., Schindler, P.M., Sun, Y., Druga, E., Knolle, J., Moessner, R., et al. Experimental observation of a time rondeau crystal. Nature Physics, 2025, 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-025-03028-y

Xiang, Z., Li, H., Xiao, J., Naik, M.H., Ge, Z., He, Z., et al. Imaging quantum melting in a disordered 2D Wigner solid. Science, 2025, 388(6748), 736–740. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.ado7136

Chen, R., Meng, F., Zhang, H., Liu, Y., Yan, S., Xu, X., et al. Room-temperature multiferroicity in sliding van der Waals semiconductors with sub-0.3 V switching. Nature Communications, 2025, 16, 3648. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-58009-9

Behrouzi, K., Khodabakhshi Fard, Z., Chen, C.M., et al. Plasmonic coffee-ring biosensing for AI-assisted point-of-care diagnostics. Nature Communications, 2025, 16, 4597. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-59868-y

Feng, J., Omar, A.K. Theory for the anomalous phase behavior of inertial active Brownian particles. Physical Review E, 2025, 111(4), L043402. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.111.L043402

Kim, H., et al. Modal focal adaptive optics for Bessel-focus two-photon fluorescence microscopy. Optics Express, 2025, 33(1), 680–693. https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.541033

Li, H., Xiang, Z., Wang, T., et al. Imaging tunable Luttinger liquid systems in van der Waals heterostructures. Nature, 2024, 631, 765–770. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07596-6

Li, H., Xiang, Z., et al. Wigner molecular crystals from multielectron moiré artificial atoms. Science, 2024, 385, 86–91. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adk1348

Regan, E.C., Lu, Z., Wang, D., et al. Spin transport of a doped Mott insulator in moiré heterostructures. Nature Communications, 2024, 15, 10252. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-54633-z

Zhang, T., Dong, K., Li, J., et al. Twisted moiré photonic crystal enabled optical vortex generation through bound states in the continuum. Nature Communications, 2023, 14, 6014. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-41068-1

Jia, X., et al. Metasurface reflector enables room-temperature circularly polarized emission from VCSEL. Optica, 2023, 10, 1093–1099. https://doi.org/10.1364/OPTICA.490176

Li, J., et al. Printable, emissivity-adaptive and albedo-optimized covering for year-round energy saving. Joule, 2023, 7(11), 2552–2567. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joule.2023.09.011

C. Jin*, E. C. Regan*, D. Wang*, M. I. B. Utama, C. Yang, J. Cain, Y. Qin, Y. Shen, Z. Zheng, K. Watanabe, T. Taniguchi, S. Tongay, A. Zettl, F. Wang. Resolving spin, valley, and Moiré quasi-angular momentum of interlayer excitons in WSe2/WS2 heterostructures. Submitted.

C. Jin*, E. C. Regan*, A. Yan, M. I. B. Utama, D. Wang, S. Zhao, Y. Qin, S. Yang, Z. Zheng, S. Shi, K. Watanabe, T. Taniguchi, S. Tongay, A. Zettl, F. Wang. Observation of Moiré excitons in WSe2/WS2 heterostructure superlattices. Nature 567, 76 (2019).

B.E. Kelly*, I Bhattacharya*, H. Heidari, M. Shusteff, C.M. Spadaccini, H.K. Taylor, “Volumetric additive manufacturing via tomographic reconstruction”, Science 363 (6431), 1075-1079 (2019)

J.M. Morris and Fleming, G.R. Quantitative modeling of energy dissipation in Arabidopsis thaliana, Environmental and Experimental Botany, 154, 99-109 (2018).

K. Gotlieb, C.-Y. Lin, M. Serbyn, W. Zhang, C. L. Smallwood, C. Jozwiak, H. Eisaki, Z. Hussain, A. Vishwanath, and A. Lanzara. “Revealing Hidden Spin-Momentum Locking in a High-Temperature Cuprate Superconductor.” Science 362, 1271-1275 (2018).

Peter Anninos, P. Chris Fragile, Samuel S. Olivier, Robert Hoffman, Bhupendra Mishra, and Karen Camarda, “Relativistic Tidal Disruption and Nuclear Ignition of White Dwarf Stars by Intermediate-mass Black Holes”, Astrophys. J., .865, N.1, 3 (2018).

M. Leuenberger*, J.M.Morris*, A.M.Chan, L. Leonelli, K.K. Niyogi and G.R. Fleming, Dissecting and modeling zeaxanthin- and lutein-dependent nonphotochemical quenching in Arabidopsis thaliana. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 114, E7009–E7017 (2017). * Contributed equally.

C. Noel, M. Berlin-Udi, C. Matthiesen, Y. Zhou, J. Yu, V. Lordi and H. Häffner, “Electric-field noise from thermally-activated fluctuators in a surface ion trap”, arXiv:1809.05624 (Submitted to PRA)

H.-K. Li, E. Urban, C. Noel, A. Chuang, Y. Xia, A. Ransford, B. Hemmerling, Y. Wang, T. Li and H. Häffner, and X. Zhang “Realization of translational symmetry in trapped cold ion rings” Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 053001 (2017)

F Lu*, I Bhattacharya*, H Sun, TTD Tran, KW Ng, GN Malheiros-Silveira et al.,“Nanopillar Quantum Well Lasers Directly Grown on Silicon and Emitting at Silicon-Transparent Wavelengths”, Optica 4 (7), 717-723 (2017)

K. Gotlieb, Z.L. Li, C.-Y. Lin, C. Jozwiak, J. H. Ryoo, C.-H. Park, Z. Hussain, S. G. Louie, and A. Lanzara. “Symmetry Rules Shaping Spin-Orbit Textures in Surface States.” Phys. Rev. B 95, 245142 (2017).

Samuel S. Olivier and Jim E. Morel, “Variable Eddington Factor Method for the Sn Equations with Lumped Discontinuous Galerkin Spatial Discretization Coupled to a Drift-Diffusion Acceleration Equation with Mixed Finite-Element Discretization”, J. Comp. .Theoret.Transport, 46, N.6-7, 480 (2017).

J. Zaks, K. Amarnath, D.M. Kramer, K.K. Niyogi and G.R. Fleming, “A kinetic model of rapidly reversible nonphotochemical quenching”. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 109, 15757–62. (2012)