IMREL Faculty
IMREL Director
Dr. Zhiping Luo (IMREL Director and Group Leader, Materials Physics Group)
Professor, Department of Chemistry, Physics, and Materials Science
Director of IMREL and Group Leader of Materials Physics Group
Office: LSA 234; E-mail: zluo
Research interests: Synthesis of novel nanomaterials with enhanced properties for energy-related applications; luminescence and radiation detection; energy conversion and storage; material structures through X-ray and neutron diffraction and electron microscopy techniques; first-principles density-functional theory calculations; material structure-property correlations.
Research Website: https://www.uncfsu.edu/research/research-groups/nanomaterials-research-group
MATERIALS PHYSICS GROUP
Dr. Chandra Adhikari
Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, Physics, and Materials Science
Office: Lyons Science 316
Phone: (910) 672-1358; email: cadhikari
Research interest: Optical, electronic, magnetic and plasmonic properties of 2- dimensional, 3-dimensional and trans-dimensional materials; spin dynamics and magnon spectrum of rare earth doped transition metal oxides; accuracy and precision measurement in atomic transitions.
Dr. Bhoj R. Gautam
Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry, Physics, and Materials Science
Office: Science and Technology Building (STB) 315
Phone: 672-1653; Email: bgautam
Research Interests: Steady state and time-resolved optical spectroscopy; charge and thermal transport in light harvesting materials; energy up-conversion in polymer and organic inorganic perovskites; polymer chemistry; material science and solid state physics.
Website: https://www.uncfsu.edu/academics/research/research-groups/gautam-research-group
Dr. Sangeetha Balabhadra
Research Associate, Southeastern North Carolina Regional Microanalytical and Imaging Consortium (SENCR-MIC)
Office: Lyons Science 127
Phone: 910-672-1074; Email: sbalabhadra
Research interest: Synthesis and characterization of rare earth doped nanomaterials, and applications of luminescent materials for sensing and biomedicine.
MATERIALS CHEMISTRY GROUP
Dr. Cevdet Akbay
Professor, Department of Chemistry, Physics, and Materials Science
Office: STB 305A; Phone: 672-1943; E-mail: cakbay
Research interests: Separation of small and large molecules using capillary electrophoresis and high performance liquid chromatography.
Dr. Jonathan Breitzer
Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, Physics, and Materials Science
Office: STB 310; Phone: 672-1176; E-maill: jbreitzer
Research interests:Cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries; sulfur-rich molecules; synthesis of nanoscale materials; demonstrations for chemical education.
Dr. Shubo Han (Group Leader)
Professor, Department of Chemistry, Physics, and Materials Science
Office: LSA 334; Phone: 672-1303; E-maill: shan
Research interests:Protein Interactions in neurodegenerative diseases, Nanomaterials, Biosensors, Electrochemistry.
Biomaterials Group
Dr. Daniel Autrey (Group Leader)
Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry, Physics, and Materials Science
Office: STB 305B; Phone: 672-1354; E-maill: dautrey
Research interests:Biological Raman spectroscopy.
Dr. Ali R. Siamaki
Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry, Physics, and Materials Science
Office: STB 320; Phone: 672-1619; E-maill: asiamaki
Research interests: Heterogeneous and homogeneous catalysis; metal nanoparticles synthesis and characterization; metal catalyzed reactions including cross coupling reactions; and microwave and continuous flow reactions.
COMPUTATIONAL MATERIALS GROUP
Dr. Jairo Castillo-Chara
Professor, Department of Chemistry, Physics, and Materials Science
Office: STB 313; Phone: 672-2062; E-maill: jcastill
Research interests: Computational Chemistry.
Dr. Zhenlu Cui
Professor, Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
Office: STB 415; Phone: 672-1164; E-maill: zcui
Research interests: Multiscale Modeling, Analysis and Computation; Perturbation Methods; Complex Fluids, Soft Matters and Biophysical fluid dynamics; Approximation Theory and Computer-Aided Design.
Dr. Alex Umantsev (Group Leader)
Professor, Department of Chemistry, Physics, and Materials Science
Office: STB 320; Phone: 672-1449; E-maill: aumantsev
Research interests:Condensed- and soft-matter physics, computational materials physics and biophysics; particularly processes of pattern formation, nonequilibrium thermodynamic and dynamics of interfaces, theoretical methods and computer simulations.