John is an experimentalist whose research is focused on properties of semiconductor materials using nanostructuring to achieve unique optical and electrical characteristics and to advance state-of-the-art applications such as sensing (environmental, defense) and quantum information.

He is the departmental Director of Research Operations, received the 2022 Innovator of the Year Award, and is a member of the Iowa Chapter of the National Academy of Inventors. He recently developed new graduate courses in thin film materials and microfabrication and co-developed a course on quantum optics and nanophotonics.

Research interests

• Semiconductor materials
• Nanophotonics

Research

• Short-, mid-, and long-wave infrared semiconductor optoelectronics and photonics
• Carrier dynamics and transport in semiconductor superlattices, nanowires, heterostructures
• Photonic engineering at the nano- to micro-scale: plasmonics, metamaterials, cavities 
• Electronic engineering in semiconductor heterostructures
• Materials for optical sensing (environment, health, defense, and autonomous driving), quantum information
• Facilities include ultrafast optics labs, use of the Molecular Beam Epitaxy Facility for III-V semiconductor growth, and the MATfab for materials micro- and nano-fabrication and imaging.
• Students on a research team, learn modeling and experimental techniques such as epitaxial growth, micro/nanofabrication, and optical spectroscopy, are supported by research assistantships, publish and present at national\international conferences