Dr. Michal Marszewski
Nov. 2016 – Dec. 2020
- PhD Chemistry, Kent State University, Kent, OH 2016
Gradient Lab · Tufts University
Members
Members of the Gradient Lab at Tufts and alumni of Prof. Pilon’s research group at UCLA (2002–2026): postdocs, graduate and undergraduate students, and visiting scholars.
Current members at TuftsPost-doctoralPhD graduatesMS graduatesUndergraduate researchersVisiting students
Current members at Tufts
The Gradient Lab is directed by Prof. Laurent Pilon. Our first cohort of PhD students and postdoctoral researchers will join in Summer 2027, when our new laboratory opens. We are recruiting PhD students and postdoctoral researchers across all of our research areas, and we welcome visiting scholars. See openings and how to apply.
Life in the Gradient Lab
Welcome. The Gradient Lab is a collaborative group where curiosity, rigor, and respect for one another come first. Students join us from mechanical, chemical, materials, and electrical engineering, physics, and chemistry, and learn to combine experiments with modeling. We welcome motivated undergraduate, graduate, and visiting students; see Openings to get in touch.
Mentoring. Students and postdocs meet regularly one-on-one with Prof. Pilon and present their work at group meetings. They are trained on our instruments and modeling tools, are encouraged to publish and to present at conferences early in their careers, and receive guidance on writing, research proposals, and career development.
Opportunities. Our projects involve collaborations with national laboratories, industry, and other universities, including through the Tufts Epsilon Materials Institute (TEMI). Prof. Pilon’s experience as Program Director and Associate Director for Technology at ARPA-E also gives lab members insight into research funding and the path from discovery to technology deployment.
For postdocs. Postdoctoral researchers lead projects, co-mentor students, and take part in writing research proposals. They are encouraged to develop their own research directions and to build collaborations within Tufts and the Tufts Epsilon Materials Institute (TEMI), with industry, national laboratories, and academia. We support each postdoc’s next career step through feedback on job applications and interviews.
Alumni
Our alumni have gone on to faculty positions; national laboratories and government agencies such as the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Savannah River National Laboratory, and the U.S. Air Force; and companies including Apple, Intel, Raytheon, Seagate, SK Innovation, SpaceX, Tesla, and Southern California Edison. Several have founded their own startup companies.
Post-doctoral and visiting scholars10
Dr. Refet Yalçin
Jan. 2021 - Sept. 2021
Dr. Yalçin visited us as Fulbright Fellow before returning to France.
Dr. Galit Bar
July 2019 - Jan. 2021
Dr. Bar visited us as a visiting scientist from the Soreq Nuclear Research Center, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel.
Prof. Keyong Zhu
February 2016-February 2017
Prof. Zhu visited us from Beihang University (BUAA), Beijing, China
Dr. Arka Bhowmik
- PhD, IIT Ropar, India, 2015
- MS, Univ. of Shefield, UK, 2009
- BSME, Amravati Univ., 2007
Prof. Hong Qi
Sept. 2011-Sept. 2012
Harbin Institute of Technology, China
Dr. Julian Varghese
- PhD, Texas A&M, 2009
- MSAE, Texas A&M, 2003
- BSME, Univ. of Kerala, 2000
Prof. Bo Zhang
January - July 2007
Dr. Zhang spent six months with us from January to July 2007 as a visiting scholar. He return to Dalian where he is Professor at Dalian University of Technology.
Rei Kitamura
Asahi Glass Corporation, Japan Sept. 2005- Sept. 2007
- BSME Tokyo University, 1997
- MSME Tokyo University, 1999
Dr. Juan Yin
- PhD, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 2004
- MSME, Tsinghua University, 2000
- BSME, Tsinghua University, 1997
PhD graduates28
Dr. Ricardo Martinez
- BSME, UCLA, 2021
- PhD, UCLA, 2025
PhD thesisDependent Scattering in Colloidal Suspensions and Mesoporous Films and Monoliths
Dr. Yucheng Zhou
- BSME, UCLA, 2019
- MSME, UCLA, 2020
- PhD, UCLA, 2024
PhD thesisOperando Calorimetric Modality for Monitoring Rechargeable Batteries
Dr. Abhinav Bhanawat
- BSME, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, 2019
- PhD, UCLA, 2024
PhD thesisSolar Radiation Transfer through Semitransparent Scattering Media across Length Scales
Dr. Matevž Frajnkovič
Co-advised with Prof. Ivan Catton
- BSME, University of Maribor, Slovenia, 2015
- MSME, University of Maribor, Slovenia, 2017
- PhD, UCLA, 2022
PhD thesisCombining Calorimetry and Electrochemical Methods to Gain Insight Into the Charging Mechanisms of Electrochemical Capacitors and Batteries
Dr. Ali Dashti
- BSME, Penn State University, 2012
- MSME, USC, 2015
- PhD, UCLA, 2022
PhD thesisMechanical Characterization and Processing of Flexible and Transparent Ambiently-Dried Aerogels
Dr. Sun Woong Baek
- BSME, UCLA, 2018
- MSME, UCLA, 2019
- PhD, UCLA, 2022
PhD thesisThermodynamic Characterization and Heat Generation of Fast-Charging Wadsley-Roth Shear Phase Materials for Battery Application
Dr. Jack Hoeniges
- BSME, Valparaiso University, 2018
- MSME, UCLA, 2019
- PhD, UCLA, 2022
PhD thesisModeling and Optimization of Light Transfer in Outdoor Microalgae Cultivation Systems
Dr. Sara Vallejo-Castano
- B.S. Chem.E. Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Sede Medellín, Colombia, 2014
- M.S. Chem.E. Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Sede Medellín, Colombia, 2017
- PhD, UCLA, 2022
PhD thesisClinkered-Free Route for Calcium Hydroxide Production and CO₂ Capture in Cementitious Materials
Dr. Eylul Simsek
- BSME, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey, 2013
- MSME, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey, 2016
- PhD, UCLA, 2021
PhD thesisRadiation Transfer through Droplet-Covered Substrates: Simulations, Experiments, and Applications
Dr. Tiphaine Galy
- BSME, Ecole des Arts et Metiers ParisTech, France, 2016
- PhD, UCLA, 2020
PhD thesisComputational Material Synthesis and Electromagnetic Wave Scattering in Particle Aggregates and Mesoporous Monoliths and Films
Dr. Ampol Likitchatchawankun
- Dipl.-Ing., TU München, Germany, 2013
- PhD, UCLA, 2020
PhD thesisHeat Generation and Degradation Mechanisms in Electrochemical Capacitors
Dr. Obaidallah Munteshari
- BSME, KFUPM 2011
- MSME, KFUPM 2014
- PhD, UCLA, 2019
PhD thesisExperimental Thermal Characterization of Electrochemical Capacitors
Dr. Bing-Ang Mei
- BSME, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, 2013
- PhD, UCLA, 2018
PhD thesisPhysical Interpretations and Electrode Design Guidelines for Electrochemical Capacitors
Dr. Zhenhua Wei
co-advised with Prof. Gaurav Sant
- BS, Huazhong Agricultural Univ. 2010
- MS, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 2013
- PhD, UCLA, 2016
PhD thesisDurability of Cementitious Composites Containing Phase Change Materials (PCMs)
Dr. Alexander Thiele
- BSME, WSU, Pullman, WA, 2012
- MSME, UCLA 2014
- PhD, UCLA, 2016
PhD thesisMicroencapsulated Phase Change Composite Materials for Energy Efficient Buildings
Dr. Joseph Attia
- BSME, Caltech, 2006
- MSME, UCLA, 2008
- PhD, UCLA, 2016
PhD thesisTransport Phenomena in Liquid Foams and Liquid Marbles Colloids
Dr. Anna D'Entremont
- BSME, Clemson University, 2010
- MSME, UCLA 2013
- PhD, UCLA, 2015
PhD thesisThermal Modeling of Electrochemical Capacitors
Dr. Ri-Liang Heng
- BSME, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, 2010
- MSME, UCLA 2012
- PhD, UCLA, 2015
PhD thesisRadiation Characteristics of Biofuel-Producing Photosynthetic Microorganisms
Dr. Ian McKinley
- BSME, Columbia University, 2010
- MSME, UCLA, 2011
- PhD, UCLA, 2013
PhD thesisThermomechanical Energy Conversion Using Ferroelectric Materials
Clean Green IGERT Fellowship
Dr. Razmig Kandilian
- BSME, UCLA 2009
- MSME, UCLA 2010
- PhD, UCLA, 2014
PhD thesisOptimization and Control of Light Transfer in Photobioreactors for Biofuel Production
Clean Green IGERT Fellowship
Dr. Hainan Wang
- BSME, University of Science and Technology China, 2006
- MSME, Notre Dame Univ., 2008
- PhD, UCLA, 2013
PhD thesisModeling and Simulation of Electrical Energy Storage In Electrochemical Capacitors
Dr. Euntaek Lee
- MSME KAIST, South Korea, 2008
- PhD, UCLA, 2013
PhD thesisLight Transfer Simulation Tools in Photobiological Fuel Production
Dr. Dmitry Yudovsky
- BSME, UC San Diego, 2006
- MSME, UCLA, 2008
- PhD, UCLA, 2010
PhD thesisSpectroscopy of Multilayered Biological Tissues for Diabetes Care
Dr. Jin Fang
- BSME, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, 2006
- MSME, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, 2008
- PhD, UCLA, 2012
PhD thesisThermal Transport in Nanoporous Materials for Energy Applications
Dr. Ashcon Navid
- BSME, UCLA, 2006
- MSME, UCLA, 2007
- PhD, UCLA, 2010
PhD thesisPyroelectric Energy Conversion for Waste Heat Harvesting
Dr. Thomas Coquil
- B.S. Ecole Polytechnique, Paris, France, 2008
- M.S. UCLA and Ecole Polytechnique, Paris, France, 2008
- PhD, UCLA, 2010
PhD thesisThermal and Optical Properties of Highly Ordered Mesoporous Materials for Energy Applications
Dr. Kamal M. Katika
- BSME, ITT Madras, 2002
- MSME, UCLA, 2004
- PhD UCLA, 2007
PhD thesisTransient Radiation Transport in Biological Tissues and Applications to Autofluorescence of Human Skin
Dr. Halil Berberoglu
- BSME, Purdue University, 2000
- MSME, Purdue University, 2003
- PhD, UCLA, 2008
PhD thesisPhotobiological Hydrogen Production and Carbon Dioxide Mitigation
MS graduates21
Zhenyu She
co-advised with Prof. Gaurav Sant
- BSME, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Shaanxi, China, 2015
- MSME, UCLA, 2018
MS thesisEarly-Age Temperature Development in Concrete Pavements Containing Microencapsulated Phase Change Materials
Benjamin Young
- BSME, UCLA 2015
- MSME, UCLA, 2017
MS thesisCementitious Materials with Embedded Microencapsulated PCM for Sustainable Infrastructure
Louis Linden
- B.S. George Mason Univ. 2015
- MSME, UCLA, 2017
MS thesisEnergy Analysis for Producing Low-Carbon Footprint Cementitious Building Materials
Alex Ricklefs
- BSME, UC San Diego, 2012
- MSME, UCLA, 2014
MS thesisThermal Conductivity of Cementitious Materials Containing Microencapsulated Phase Change Materials
Henri-Louis Girard
- B.S. Ecole Polytechnique, France, 2013
- MSME, UCLA, 2015
MS thesisModeling and Physical Interpretation of Pseudocapacitors under Cyclic Voltammetry
Felix Lee
- BSME, UCLA, 2009
- MSME, UCLA, 2012
MS thesisExperimental and Analytical Studies on Pyroelectric Waste Heat Energy Conversion
Amanda Fujii
- BSME, UCLA, 2012
- MSME, UCLA, 2014
MS thesisEffect of Nanoporosity on the Thermal Conductivity of Amorphous Carbon
Raylene Moreno
- BS Environmental Engineering, UCLA, 2010
- MSME UCLA, 2011
MS thesisPyroelectric Energy Converter: Numerical Simulations vs. Experimental Results
David Wirth
- BSME, UCLA 2012
- MSME, UCLA, 2012
MS thesisExperimental Study on the Aerospace Applications of Photoreactive Nanomaterials
Hiep Nguyen
- BSME, UC Berkeley, 2007
- MSME, UCLA, 2009
MS thesisPyroelectric Energy Converter Using Co-Polymer P(VDF-TrFE) and Olsen Cycle for Waste Heat Energy Harvesting
Damien Vanderpool
- BSME, UCLA, 2006
- MSME, UCLA, 2008
MS thesisNumerical and Experimental Study of a Pyroelectric Energy Converter for Harvesting Waste Heat
Dr. Kamal M. Katika
- BSME, ITT Madras, 2002
- MSME, UCLA, 2004
MS thesisModified Method of Characteristics in Radiative Transfer
After his MSME thesis, Kamal stayed for PhD in our group.
Matthew M. Braun
- BSME Clarkson University, 2003
- MSME UCLA, 2004
MS thesisEffective Optical Properties of Nanoporous Thin-Film
Tzu-ying Tseng
- BSME, National Cheng Kung University 2009
- MSME UCLA, 2010
Thomas Chin
- BSME, UC San Diego 2009
- MSME, UCLA 2011
Brian James
- BS MSE, UC Irvine, 2008
- MSME UCLA, 2010
Pedro Gomez
- BSME, UC Berkeley, 2006
- MSME, UCLA, 2010
Herman Wong
- BSME, UC Berkeley, 2008
- MSME, UCLA, 2010
Jennifer Blackwell
- BSBE, UC San Diego, 2005
- MSME, UCLA, 2007
Kyle Smith
- MSME, UCLA, 2006
- BSME, UCLA, 2005
Howard Tseng
- MSME UCLA, 2005
- BSCE UC Berkeley, 2004
Undergraduate researchers30
Daniel Huang
- BSME, expected Spring 2020
Zhaojiang He
- BSME, expected Fall 2019
Yucheng Zhou
- BSME, expected Spring 2019
Yoichiro Rokushima
BSME, expected Summer 2019
Bin Li
- BSME, UCLA, 2016
Graduate student at UCLA
Kevin Wan
- BSME, UCLA, 2015
Graduate student at Stanford
Patarapol Chutinuntanakul
- BSME, UCLA 2015
John R. Sy
- BSME, UCLA 2015
Graduate student at Columbia University
Zachary Johnson
- BSME, UCLA 2012
Gabriel Garcia
- BSME, UCLA 2012
- MBA, Santa
3rd Place in the 2010 UCLA RISE-UP poster competition.
Yi Huang
- BSME, UCLA 2012
Graduate student at MIT
Aditya Chandramohan
- BSME, UCLA 2012
Graduate student at Purdue
Joshua Kim
- BSAE, UCLA 2012
Broc Chavez
BSME, June 2012
David Moreno
- BSME, UCLA 2012
Neal Hutchinson
- BSAE, UCLA 2009
- MSME, UCLA 2010
Saurabh Pillai
- BSME, UCLA 2009
- MSME, UCLA 2010
Gbenga Elehinafe
- BSME, UCLA 2008
Daniel Durbin
- BSME, UCLA 2008
Anna Garahan
- BSAE, UCLA 2006
Ding Lai
- BSME, UCLA 2006
Henri Patricio
- BSME, UCLA 2006
Natasha Barra
- BSME, UCLA 2006
Richard Yau
- BSAE, UCLA 2006
- MSE, Georgia Tech, 2008
Damien Vanderpool
- BSME, UCLA 2006
- MSME, UCLA 2008
Vivien Leong
- BSChemE, UCLA 2005
Soojung (Claire) Hur
- BSME, UCLA 2005
- MSME, UCLA 2007
- PhD, UCLA 2011
Fritz Schrimerz
- BSME, UCLA 2004
Jonathan Chang
- BSME UCLA, 2004
Lisa Ridderhof
- BSME, UCLA 2004
Visiting students16
Chuanxin Zhang
Dec. 2017 - Dec. 2018
Chuanxin visited us from Harbin Institute of Technology where he was a PhD student.
An-Shen Siao
Apr. 2017 - Jan. 2018
- BSME Private Chinese Culture University, Taiwan, 2011
- MSME National Formosa University, Taiwan, 2013
An-Shen visited us during PhD studies at National Taiwan University of Science and Technology.
Leonel Peña-Angeles
August 2015 - May 2016
Leonel visited us from Instituto Tecnologico de Monterrey, Mexico where he was a PhD student.
Shogo Okishio
August 2015 - January 2016
Shogo visited us for 6 months during his MS studies at Nagoya University, Japan.
Hua Liu
Sept. 2014 - Oct. 2015
Harbin Inst. of Technology, School of Energy Science & Eng., China
Hua was a PhD student at Harbin Institute of Technology, China and visited us for one year supported by the China Scholarship Council.
Astrid Jamet
April - August 2014
ENTPE, France
Astrid spent 5 months in our lab working on technologies for zero-net energy buildings. She returned to France to complete her Engineering degree.
Bingang Mei
Summer 2013
Bingang came for the summer from Zhejiang University through UCLA CSST. She returned to China to finish her BSME in 2014 before coming back to UCLA for her PhD.
Luo Qi
Summer 2012
Luo came for the summer from Xi’an Jiaotong University through UCLA CSST. He returned to China to finish his undergraduate studies.
Dr. Jiafei Zhao
Sept. 2007 - Sept. 2008
Jiafei spent one year from Sept. 2007 to Sept. 2008 as part of his PhD studies at the State Key Laboratory of Clean Energy Utilization at Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
Hugo Frederich
Summer 2008
Grenoble Institute of Technology (INPG)
Hugo did his junior internship in our lab and went on to take a PhD at Universite Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France
Sophie Larmignat
Summer 2007
Grenoble Institute of Technology (INPG)
Sophie did her junior internship in our lab and received her BS in Applied Physics.
Fabien Gregoris
Summer 2007
Grenoble Institute of Technology (INPG)
Fabien did his junior internship in our lab and received his BS in Applied Physics.
Samuel Prim
March-September 2004
Grenoble Institute of Technology (INPG)
Samuel did his final year internship with us and received his BS in Applied Physics.
Gauderic Lerouge
September 2006- January 2007
Institut Catholique d'Arts et Métiers, Toulouse - 2007 Gauderic did his final year internship with us and received his BS in Engineering from Toulouse, France.
James Washington
UC LEAD Summer 2003
- BSME 2004 UC Santa Barbara
Hélène Ruckebusch
Summer 2003
Grenoble Institute of Technology (INPG)
Hélène did her junior internship in our lab and received her BS in Applied Physics.