T.E.A. Lab @ UCSB

Bolin Liao

Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, UCSB

Bolin is originally from Sichuan, China. He received his Bachelor's degrees from Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, in 2010. Then he moved to the US to study at MIT advised by Prof. Gang Chen, and earned his Ph.D. in 2016. After a one-year stay at Caltech as a Kavli Postdoc Fellow hosted by late Prof. Ahmed Zewail, Bolin started as an assistant professor at UCSB in July 2017. 

Google Scholar       ORCID

Email: bliao@ucsb.edu

Phone: 805-893-7251

Office: ESB 3231E

Taeyong Kim

Postdoctoral Scholar, Sep. 2020 - Present

Taeyong received his B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Yonsei University, South Korea. He obtained his Ph.D. in Applied Physics at Caltech (2020), under the guidance of Prof. Austin Minnich. While at Caltech, his research focused on experimental characterization of thermal transport in disordered materials. His current research topic at UCSB is to understand the transport phenomena of surface charge carriers in novel materials using ultrafast spectroscopy, including scanning ultrafast electron microscope (SUEM).

Email: tykim@ucsb.edu

Ryan Gnabasik

Postdoctoral Scholar, Sep. 2021 - Present

Ryan received his B.S. in Physics from Creighton University in 2015. He obtained his Ph.D. in Materials Science from the University of Minnesota in 2021 advised by David Flannigan. His research interests include ultrafast dynamics of novel materials, pump-probe methodology, and renewable energy. While at Minnesota, Ryan worked in an ultrafast transmission electron microscopy (UTEM) lab focusing on the structural dynamics of plasmonic materials and superconductors. As part of the TEALab, Ryan will be working on the scanning ultrafast electron microscope (SUEM) with specific focus on electron backscattered diffraction, thermal diffuse scattering, and 2D and solar materials. Some of his other interests include soccer, cooking, and movies.

Email: gnabasik@ucsb.edu

Lokanath Patra

Postdoctoral Scholar, Dec. 2021 - Present

Lokanath received his master’s degree in Physics from Pondicherry University, India, in 2013. He obtained his Ph.D. in Physics from the Central University of Tamil Nadu, India, in 2019 under the supervision of Prof. P. Ravindran. His research interests include first-principles modeling of magnetic and magnetoelectric multiferroic materials. He joined Prof. Ravindra Pandey’s lab at Michigan Technological University (MTU) in 2020. While at MTU, Lokanath worked on the mechanical stability and mechanical response of 2D materials. He joined TEALab in December 2021. As part of the TEALab, Lokanath will be working on developing advanced computational techniques to model solid-state magnetic refrigeration from first principles and aid the computational search for the next-generation materials for magnetic refrigeration applications. His other interests include biking, hiking, cooking, cricket, and movies.

Email: lpatra@ucsb.edu

Usama Choudhry

Graduate Student, Sep. 2017 - Present

Usama received his Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Connecticut in 2016. After a one-year stay in industry, he joined the TEALab in 2017. His research interests include first-principles calculations of electronic and thermal properties and scanning ultrafast electron microscopy. Outside of the lab, he enjoys reading, playing tennis, and hiking very slowly.

Email: uchoudhry@ucsb.edu

Wenkai Ouyang

Graduate Student, Aug. 2018 - Present

Wenkai received his Bachelor's degree in Materials Science from Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) in Shenzhen, China, in 2018. He was an undergraduate researcher in University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 2017. Before joining UCSB, he focused on the growth of 2D materials and heterojunctions, and transfer of 2D materials. His research interests include laser-induced transient gratings and scanning ultrafast electron microscopy (SUEM).

Email: wenkai@ucsb.edu

Jiaoyue Yuan

Graduate Student, June 2019 - Present

Jiaoyue is a third-year graduate student in Physics Department at UCSB. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Astrophysics and Mathematics from Rutgers University in 2017. She focused on the study of young galaxies and cosmic dust before joining TEALab in Jun 2019. Her current research interests include the application of deep learning algorithms to understand the properties of amorphous materials. 

Email: jiaoyue@ucsb.edu

Melanie Adams

Graduate Student, Jan. 2019 - Present

Melanie received her Bachelor’s degree in Materials Science and Engineering from MIT in 2013. Afterwards, she worked at a start-up for a short time and went abroad where she completed a Master’s degree in Materials Science and Engineering at EPFL in Switzerland and the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Germany in 2017. She joined the TEALab in 2019. Her research interests include electron microscope thermometry and extending our understanding of thermal properties to biological and medical applications. Outside of the lab, Melanie enjoys bouldering/rock climbing, drawing, and getting away from Santa Barbara on occasion.

Email: melanieadams@ucsb.edu

Runqing Yang

Graduate Student, Sep. 2019 - Present

Undergraduate Researcher, Feb. 2018 - Aug. 2019

Runqing received his BS in Physics from UCSB in 2019. He has been an undergraduate researcher in TEALab since his junior year and has recently started as a graduate student. His research interest is the theoretical study of phonon transport.

Email: runqingyang@ucsb.edu

Yujie Quan

Graduate Student, Sep. 2019 - Present

Yujie received her Bachelor's degree in Applied Physics from the University of Science and Technology of China in 2019 and has been a member of the TEALab since then. She used to be an undergraduate researcher at the University of Texas, Austin in summer 2018 and her research focused on condensed matter theory. Her research interests include ab-initio study on thermal transport.

Email: yquan@ucsb.edu

Alex Ackerman

Graduate Student, Jul. 2021 - Present

Undergraduate Researcher, Jul. 2018 - Jun. 2021

Alex is a graduate student at UCSB Mechanical Engineering and is originally from Napa, CA. He has built several cloud servers for small businesses in his hometown and has also worked on numerous independent projects including designing and building drones for aerial photography. His interests include 3D printing, energy storage and anything involving lasers.​

Email: aackerman@ucsb.edu