MEET OUR TEAM
Principal Investigator
Kai He
Associate Professor
Department Graduate Advisor
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
University of California, Irvine
E-mail: kai.he@uci.edu
Phone: (949) 824-3478
Office: 816C Engineering Tower
Lab: 2421 Calit2 Building
Mail: 544 Engineering Tower, Irvine, CA 92697-2585
About Dr. Kai He
Kai He’s research focuses on the development of advanced electron microscopy methodologies and their applications in nanostructured multifunctional materials for quantum information sciences and clean energy technologies. He received his Ph.D. at Arizona State University and completed his postdoctoral training at University of Maryland and Brookhaven National Laboratory. He was a research assistant professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Northwestern University and a tenure-track assistant professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Clemson University before joining UCI.
Selected Honors and Awards
- National Science Foundation CAREER Award (2023)
- U.S. Department of Energy Early Career Award (2021)
- American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund Doctoral New Investigator Award (2021)
- Clemson University Research, Scholarship and Artistic Achievement Award (2021)
- Clemson University CECAS Junior Researcher of the Year (2020)
- National Science Foundation EPSCoR RII Track-4 Fellowship for Early Career Faculty (2019)
- Microscopy Society of America Presidential Scholar Award (2014)
- Ellen Williams Fellowship, University of Maryland (2011)
- Best Student Paper Award, IEEE Magnetics Society (2009)
Postdoctoral Researcher
Dr. Yaqing Guo
Postdoctoral Scholar (2024-present)
Ph.D. Electronic Science and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology (2022)
Dr. Min He
Postdoctoral Scholar (2024-present)
Ph.D. Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (2018)
Dr. Hongkui Zheng
Visiting Assistant Project Scientist (2024-present)
Ph.D. Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Irvine (2023)
M.S. Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Irvine (2019)
B.S. Materials Science and Engineering, Hohai University (2017)
Research Interests: energy storage materials, in situ TEM
Hitachi Fellowship (2021, 2022)
M&M Invited Speaker and Travel Grant (2020)
George J. Bishop III Fellowship (2021)
ASU HREM Winter School Scholarship (2020)
Vacant Position
Postdoctoral Scholar
Position immediately available!
Candidates with solid backgrounds in electron microscopy, energy storage, and quantum materials are encouraged to apply! Please send your CV to Dr. He and specify “Postdoc Application + Year + Your Name” in the subject line. Details also see here.
Graduate Students
Eric Yoshida
Ph.D. Student (2022-present)
M.S. Materials Science and Engineering, UC Santa Barbara (2022)
B.S. Chemistry, UC Santa Barbara (2021)
Research Interests: in situ TEM for batteries
NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (2023-2026)
Tohid Moosavy
Ph.D. Student (2022-present)
M.S. Materials Science and Engineering, Arizona State University (2022)
B.S. Materials Science and Engineering, Arizona State University (2020)
Research Interests: in situ TEM for quantum materials
UCI-LANL Graduate Fellowship (2023-2024)
Jared Ura
Ph.D. Student (2024-present)
B.S. Materials Science and Engineering, UC Davis (2024)
Research Interests: in situ TEM for batteries
Chen-Hui Han
M.S. Student (2024-present)
B.S. Chemical Engineering, Natpoinal Chung Cheng University, Taiwan (2023)
Research Interests: TBD
Vacant Position
Ph.D. Student
1-2 positions to be filled in Fall 2024…
Candidates with background and interest in energy storage and quantum materials are encouraged to apply! Hands-on experience in electron microscopy is a plus. Please send your CV to Dr. He and specify “Ph.D. Application + Year expected to start + Your Name” in the subject line. Details also see here.
Student Awards
Eric Yoshida:
- NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (2023)
Tohid Moosavy:
- UCI-LANL Fellowship (2023)
Xiner (Lucy) Lu:
- M&M Poster Award (2023)
- PMCx60 Travel Award (2023)
- Gilbert Robinson Memorial Fellowship (2021)
- ASU HREM Winter School Scholarship (2020)
Hongkui Zheng:
- Hitachi Fellowship (2021, 2022)
- M&M Invited Speaker and Travel Grant (2020)
- George J. Bishop III Fellowship (2021)
- ASU HREM Winter School Scholarship (2020)
Undergraduate Students
Lori Fung
Undergraduate Student
B.S. Materials Science and Engineering, UC Irvine (2021-present)
Karthik Iyer
Undergraduate Student
B.S. Physics and Astronomy, UC Irvine (2021-present)
Steve Ho
Undergraduate Student
B.S. Materials Science and Engineering, UC Irvine (2020-present)
Nam De Porceri
Undergraduate Student
B.S. Materials Science and Engineering, UC Irvine (2020-present)
Vacant Position
Undergraduate Student
We continuously offer opportunities for undergrad students to conduct research in our lab. Please send your inquiries to Dr. He at any time!
We welcome self-motivated students with interest in energy storage and quantum materials and machine learning analytics to apply. We strongly encourage women and underrepresentated minorities to join us!
Alumni
Postdoctoral Scholars:
- Dr. Hongkui Zheng (2023-2024). Current: DENSSolutions, USA
- Dr. Cheng Li (2023-2024).
- Dr. Jiang Cui (2019-2020). Current: Senior Materials Engineer, Tesla, USA
- Dr. Sungkyu Kim (2016-2018). Current: Assistant Professor, Sejong University, Korea
Graduate Students:
- Xiner Lu, Ph.D. (2022-2024). Current: Intel, USA
- Hongkui Zheng, Ph.D. (2019-2023). Current: DENSSolutions, USA
- Zilong Zhang, Visiting Ph.D. (2019-2020). Current: Associate Professor, Guangdong Polytech Normal University, China
- Kaili Rong, M.S. (2023-2024).
- Xiner Lu, M.S. (2019-2022). Current: Ph.D. candidate, UCI
- Sam Beckley, M.S. (2021-2022). Current: Engineer, Aerojet Rocketdyne
- Zongyue Chai, M.S. (2019-2020). Current: Ph.D. candidate, Zhejiang University, China
Undergraduate Students:
- Mentored at UCI: Nam De Porceri (2023-2024, Current: Tesla), Steve Ho (2023-2024, Current: PhD at UC Davis), Ava Zoba (2023, NSF REU, Current: PhD at Rice).
- Mentored at Clemson University: Shelly Phillips (2018-2019), Andrew Butterfield (2018-2019), Will Franklin (2019), Taylor Bigger (2019-2020), Sam Beckley (2019-2021), Leo Beck (2020-2021), Mauricio Melara (2021).
High School Students:
- Mentored at UCI: Linda Xie (2022), Currnet: MIT.
- Mentored at Clemson: Nolan Hamel (2019), Jonathan Norris (2019), José Montés (2020), Grant Mondeel (2020).