2016 Mayer Scholarship Recipient

Posted in News Story PhysicsGrad  |  Tagged PhysicsGrads

The Department of Physics is pleased to announce that Kyle DiCamillo is the recipient of the 2016 Professor Walter G. Mayer Endowed Scholarship, which supports a graduate student pursuing a Ph.D. in experimental physics. Kyle is working in the research laboratory of Prof. Makarand Paranjape in the area of two dimensional films for field-effect devices used as gas sensors.  He is investigating an automated exfoliation method to reliably generate few-/single-layer films of MoS₂ or MoTe₂ in contrast to the traditional mechanical tape exfoliation and chemical vapor deposition techniques.  Using a programmable rheometer, which is a tool that can apply known stresses to soft solid materials and gather data about their mechanical properties, mechanical exfoliation can become more consistent and reproducible than by hand-peeled tape.  Additionally, the rheometer parameters can be varied to optimize and standardize a mechanical exfoliation recipe for different 2D materials.  This work, which is being conducted in collaboration with the Materials Measurement Lab at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), can transition towards more reliable gas sensors.  The Mayer scholarship fund has been endowed through the generous support of Dr. David Auth (G’69), a former graduate student of the late Professor Walter Mayer.