Fultz Group Members and Associates
Excursion to the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena.

Fultz Group Members

Principal Investigator

  • Brent Fultz

    • Scientists, Visiting Scientists, and Postdoctoral Fellows

  • Dr. Channing Ahn
  • Dr. David Boyd
  • Dr. Valerie Scott (JPL)
  • Dr. Risaku Toda (JPL)

    • Graduate Students

  • Vladimir Ladygin
  • Kyle Hunady
  • Elena Priesen-Reis
  • Anne Lin
  • Ihab Elmasri
  • Ethan Klein
  • Justin Chen

    • Undergraduate Students

    Professional Administrative Staff

  • Gabrella Weiss
  • Erika Garcia

    • Where did they go?

    After completing their Ph.D. degrees, most graduates from the Fultz group take postdoctoral fellowships at universities or national labs (permanent positions are not typical until a few years later). More typical of permanent jobs are those of students who finished a few years ago. Here are the present (as of 2025) positions of all students who finished with Fultz from 2012 to 2022:

  • Chen W. Li, Phonon anharmonicity of ionic compounds and metals, Ph.D. in Materials Science, May 4, 2012.
    > Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Univ. Calif. Riverside.

  • Nicholas P. Stadie, Synthesis and Thermodynamic Studies of Physisorptive Energy Storage Materials, Ph.D. in Materials Science, Nov. 5, 2012.
    > Professor of Chemistry, Montana State Univ. Bozeman.

  • David G. Abrecht, Thermodynamic Properties of Organometallic Dihydrogen Complexes for Hydrogen Storage Applications, Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, Dec. 4, 2012.
    > Senior Chemical Engineer, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

  • Jorge A. Munoz, Jr., Electronic Structure and phonon thermodynamics of iron alloys, Ph.D. in Materials Science, May 20, 2013.
    > Professor of Physics, University of Texas, El Paso.

  • Tian Lan, Studies of Phonon Anharmonicity in Solids Ph.D. in Applied Physics, May 6, 2014.
    > Staff, Google Research, Mountain View, CA.

  • Hillary L. Smith, Phase Transformations and Entropy of Non-Equilibrium Materials Ph.D. in Materials Science, May 29, 2014.
    > Assoc. Professor of Physics, Swarthmore College.

  • Lisa M. Mauger, Phonon Thermodynamics of Iron and Cementite Ph.D. in Applied Physics, May 28, 2015.
    > Signal Analysis Engineer, Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

  • Sally June Tracy, Polaron hopping in olivine phosphates studied by nuclear resonant scattering Ph.D. in Materials Science, Sept. 3, 2015.
    > Staff Scientist, Carnegie Institution of Washington.

  • Maxwell R. Murialdo, Anomalous Thermodynamics of Nonideal Gas Physisorption on Nanostructured Carbons Ph.D. in Materials Science, July 28, 2016.
    > Research Scientist, Lawrence Livermore National Lab.

  • Dennis S. Kim, Silicon Revisited: Understanding pure phonon anharmonicity and the eects on thermophysical properties Ph.D. in Materials Science, August 21, 2017.
    > Asst. Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Univ. Florida, Gainesville.

  • Nicholas J. Weadock, Addressing Thermodynamic Inefficiencies of Hydrogen Storage in Transition Metal Hydrides Ph.D. in Materials Science, January 22, 2019.
    > Research Professor, Univ. Colorado, Boulder.

  • Fred Chae-Reem Yang, High Temperature Electron-Phonon and Magnon-Phonon Interactions, Ph.D. in Materials Science, March 25, 2019.
    > Technical Staff, Omniscience.

  • Jane E. Herriman, Phonon thermodynamics and elastic behavior of GaN and GaAs at high temperatures and pressures, Ph.D. in Materials Science, Feb. 14, 2020.
    > Technical Staff, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

  • Yang Shen, Phonon Anharmonicity at the Limits of Perturbation Theory, Ph.D. in Applied Physics, May 27, 2020.
    > seeking position.

  • > Claire N. Saunders, Thermal Behavior of Cuprous Oxide: A Comprehensive Study of Three-Body Phonon Effects and Beyond, Ph.D. in Materials Science, May 19, 2022.
    > Technical Staff, Commonwealth Fusion Systems.

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