Group Members
GRADUATE STUDENTS
Kunal Lakhanpal
Applied Physics Ph.D. student at Rice University (Houston, TX) working on thermal emission control through metasurface design.
Department: APP
Office: BRK 322
Email: kl89@rice.edu
Giuseppe Giorgio
Applied Physics Ph.D. student at Rice University (Houston, TX) working on nanophotonics and plasmonic metasurfaces for THz generation.
Department: APP
Office: BRK 322
Email: gg57@rice.edu
Umar Arshad
Applied Physics Ph.D. student at Rice University (Houston, TX) working on hot-carrier-driven photocatalysis.
Department: APP
Office: DH 3027
Email: umar.arshad@rice.edu
Hang Qian
Applied Physics Ph.D. student at Rice University (Houston, TX) working on metasurfaces for deep brain stimulation and photoacoustics.
Department: APP
Office: BRK 322
Email: hq16@rice.edu
Elijah Kritzell
NRT fellow co-advised with Prof. Kono.
Applied Physics Ph.D. candidate at Rice University (Houston, TX) working on ultrastrong light-matter coupling for quantum information, spintronics, and novel cavity-enabled technologies.
Department: APP/ECE
Office: OES 220
Email: Kritzell@rice.edu
Alan Covarrubias
NRT fellow co-advised with Prof. Kono.
Applied Physics Ph.D. student at Rice University (Houston, TX) working on optical cavities for the control of quantum materials.
Department: APP/ECE
Office: OES 220
Email: ac227@rice.edu
Tanaya Karmakar
NRT fellow co-advised with Prof. Kono.
Applied Physics PhD student at Rice University (Houston, TX) working on the engineered metamaterial cavity for tuning the properties of magnetic material in the THz regime.
Department: APP/ECE
Office: Not assigned
Email: tk76@rice.edu
POSTDOC POSITIONS
Will Schmid, Ph.D.
Electrical and Computer Engineering Ph.D. at Rice University (Houston, TX) working on the development of fully decentralized solar thermal desalination technologies.
Department: ECE
Office: BRK 322
Email: ws33@rice.edu
VISITING RESEARCHERS
Qian Ye, Ph.D.
Physics Ph.D. at Rice University (Houston, TX) working on computational nanophononics and thermal transport in plasmonic nanostructures.
Department: ECE
Office: BRK 322
Email: qy19@rice.edu
Andrea Schirato, Ph.D.
Junior Assistant Professor of Physics at Politecnico di Milano (Milan, Italy) and Marie Curie Fellow at Rice University (Houston, TX) working on the theoretical study and numerical modelling of the ultrafast light-matter interaction at the nanoscale in nonlinear optical nanostructures and metasurfaces.
Department: Physics Department of Politecnico di Milano
Office: BRK 322
Email: andrea.schirato@polimi.it
Sina Nazifi, Ph.D.
Visiting Researcher at Rice University (Houston, TX) working on the mechanical design and prototyping of solar-thermal desalination systems.
Department: ECE
Office: BRK 322
Email: sn53@rice.edu
UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS
Anthony Iturbe
Electrical and Computer Engineering undergraduate student at Rice University (Houston, TX) working on the optimization of numerical methods for brain connectivity modeling in collaboration with Baylor College of Medicine.
Department: ECE
Office: Not assigned
Email: ai36@rice.edu
Jose Antonio Eleuterio
Electrical and Computer Engineering undergraduate student at Rice University (Houston, TX) working on computational modeling of plasmonic photothermal dynamics.
Department: ECE
Office: Not assigned
Email: je53@rice.edu
ALUMNI
| Name | Role | Following Position |
|---|---|---|
| Graduate Students | ||
| Narmada Naidu | (2020-2024), PhD in Applied Physics | Postdoctoral Fellow at EPFL, Switzerland |
| Bryant Jerome | (2020-2023), MSc in Applied Physics | IT sector |
| Postdoctoral Researchers | ||
| Keith Sanders | Rice Academy of Fellows (2021-2023) | Research Scientist, Army Research Laboratory |
| Visiting Researchers | ||
| Aubin Touraquet | Master’s student (2023-2024) | PhD student, Institut d’Optique, France |
| Maria Crespo | IMFAHE Fellow (2022-2023) | Research Assistant, Baylor College of Medicine |
| Maria Basanez | IMFAHE Fellow (2022-2023) | PhD applicant |
| Marlene Fuhr | Baylor College of Medicine (2025-2026) | Instituto Tecnológico de Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires, Argentina) |
| Undergraduate Students | ||
| Alessandro Bordone | Undergraduate Research intern (2023) | Tandon School of Engineering, NYU |
| Isabella Chiodi | Undergraduate Research intern (2021) | Chemical Engineering sophomore, Rice University |
| Joao Cunha | Research Fellow, INL (2020) | – |
| Jim Shi | Visiting Scholar (2025) | University of Cambridge (Cambridge, UK) |
| Zhuofei Li | Visiting Scholar (2025) | USTC (Hefei, China) |
GROUP PHOTOS ARCHIVE
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