Kavli Discovery Fellows

Current Fellows

photo of akshara aditya

Akshara Aditya

Akshara Adiya is a PhD student studying the electronic structure of quantum materials using photoemission techniques. He maintains and uses instruments for time- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy with a 6 eV probe.

photo of betty aining hu

Betty (Aining) Hu

Aining Hu is a Ph.D. student in the Physics Department at UC Berkeley working in the Crommie Lab. Her research centers on the design and fabrication of rhombohedral multilayer graphene devices and other moiré quantum materials, which she probes using low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) to study their electronic structure and correlated quantum phases.

Photo of graduate student, CARLA BASSIL

Carla Bassil

Carla Bassil is a PhD student in Prof. Ali Javey's lab, specializing in on-body sensor development. Currently, she is working on multiplexed gas sensor arrays paired with machine learning algorithms in order to perform object classification using signature VOCs. 

photo of hao wei

Hao Wei

Hao Wei is a Ph.D. candidate in Prof. Ting Xu's group at UC Berkeley. Hao's research involves the preparation, characterization, and application of polymer nanocomposites in plastic waste remediation. 

Photo of graduate student, HAOYUE JIANG

Haoyue Jiang

Haoyue Jiang is a Ph.D. student in the Applied Science & Technology program at UC Berkeley. She leads the development of a time-resolved ARPES system in the Lanzara Lab, focusing on ultrafast dynamics in quantum materials. Her research interests include multi-pump pump–probe spectroscopy, non-equilibrium dynamics, and the design of next-generation photoemission experiments.

Photo of graduate student, HAOYUE JIANG

Jamie Geng

Jamie Geng is a Ph.D. student studying the interaction of semiconductor materials, devices, and light. Her research currently focuses on direction-tunable photodiodes using both novel and scalable materials for the purpose of power and memory efficient instant identification of various materials using spectral data. 

photo of johanna hall

Johanna Hall

Johanna Hall is a PhD candidate in Graham Fleming’s group researching the design principles of light harvesting in natural photosynthesis. She uses a combination of spectroscopic techniques and computational modeling to understand how chlorophyll-protein complexes efficiently absorb, transfer, and trap light energy as well as dissipate excess energy under high light stress. 

Photo of Maria Victoria Fonseca Guzman

Maria Fonseca Guzman

Maria Fonseca Guzman is a Ph.D. candidate in Prof. Peidong Yang's lab. Her research involves studying electrochemical (EC), CO2 reducing nanocatalysts during their operation. She employs several tools including in situ EC Raman spectroscopy and synchrotron based X-Ray techniques. Moving forward, she will focus on differentiating how different catalytic surfaces evolve, how adsorbates interact; overall, painting the molecular picture which helps drives highly selective catalysis. 

Photo of graduate student, OSCAR GONZALEZ

Oscar Gonzalez

Oscar Gonzalez is a Ph.D. candidate in Prof. Bediako's lab in the chemistry department at UC Berkeley. Oscar's research involves probing local and global magnetic order in intercalated transition metal dichalcogenides with an eye towards implementation in spintronic devices.

Photo of Shannon Sanaya Fender

Shannon Sanaya Fender

Shannon Fender is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Chemistry at UC Berkeley, working in Prof. Bediako’s lab. Her research focuses on magnetism and topology in intercalated transition metal dichalcogenides for applications in spintronic devices.

Shantanu Kadam photo

Shantanu Kadam

Shantanu Kadam is a biophysics graduate student in Professor Carlos Bustamante's lab, specializing in single-molecule dynamic force spectroscopy. His research interests include protein folding, mechanical barriers to transcription, and spatiotemporal enhancements to optical tweezers.

Past Kavli Discovery Fellows - Spring 2025

Carla Bassil

Collin Finnan

Haoyue Jiang

Jamie Geng

Kaiyu Wang

Kohtaro Yamakawa

Maria Fonseca Guzman

Oscar Gonzales

Ziyi Wang