Group Leader
Ryan “Riley” F. Need, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
University of Florida
Office: 150 Rhines Hall, Gainesville, FL 32611-6400, USA
Phone: (352) 294-1690
Email: rneed@ufl.edu
Pronouns: they/them
Education
Ph.D. Materials, University of California Santa Barbara, 2017
B.S. Ceramics and Materials Engineering, Clemson University, 2011
Ph.D. Students
Keon Sahebkar
Education: B.S. in Physics, University of South Florida
Projects:
(1) Developing synthetic control over topotactic phase transformations in SrFeO3 films
(2) Designing a prototype silicon interposer with a nano-electromechanical switching array for improved hardware security
Nathan Arndt
Education: B.S. in Physics and Mathematics,
University of Wisconsin-Parkside
Projects:
(1) Magnetic structure determination of entropy-stabilized oxides
(2) Quantifying oxygen migration rates in nanoscale epitaxial films
Masters Students
Hunter Long
Education: B.S. in Materials Science & Engineering, UF, 2022
Project: Improving hardware security for heterogeneous IC packaging
Noah Caracuel
Education: B.S. in Materials Science & Engineering, UF, 2023
Project: Improving hardware security for heterogeneous IC packaging
Undergraduate Researchers
Morgan Congdon
Education: B.S. in Materials Science & Engineering, UF, Expected: Spring 2026
Project: Studying oxygen ion migration thin films of complex transition metal oxides
Han Hui
Education: B.S. in Materials Science & Engineering, UF, Expected: Spring 2024
Project: Studying oxygen ion migration thin films of complex transition metal oxides
Brooke Lastinger
Education: B.S. in Materials Science & Engineering, UF, Expected: Spring 2026
Project: Studying oxygen ion migration thin films of complex transition metal oxides
Garrett Young
Education: B.S. in Materials Science & Engineering, UF, Expected: Spring 2024
Project: Synthesizing compositionally-complex magnetic perovskite oxides
Liam Pattison
Education: B.S. in Materials Science & Engineering, UF, Expected: Spring 2027
Project: Synthesizing compositionally-complex magnetic perovskite oxides
Alumni
| Student (Degree) | Years Mentored | Next Job/Location |
| Aditya Raghavan (M.S. Mat. Sci. & Eng.) | 2022-2023 | Ph.D., Univ. of Tenn. Knoxville |
| Kade Nelson (B.S. Mat. Sci. & Eng.) | 2022-2023 | Cognex, MA |
| Carolina Gandin (B.S. Mat. Sci. & Eng.) | 2022-2023 | M.S., Delft Univ. of Tech. |
| Jason Schibler (B.S. Mat. Sci. & Eng.) | 2021-2023 | Ph.D., Cornell Univ. |
| Gaurav Kumar (M.S. Chem. Eng.) | 2022 | Ph.D., Ohio State Univ. |
| Megan Wolfe (H.S./GED) | 2022 | B.S., Univ. of Florida |
| Eli Wennen (B.S., visiting) | 2022 | |
| Robert Nowak (B.S. Physics) | 2022 | Ph.D., Univ. of Rochester |
| Matthias Preidl (M.S., visiting) | 2022 | Ph.D., TU Wien |
| Pranav Anumulapally (B.S. Mech. Eng.) | 2020-2022 | Agilis Engineering, FL |
| Edward Mirkin (B.S. Mat. Sci. & Eng.) | 2020-2022 | |
| Labdhi Shah (M.S. Chem. Eng.) | 2021-2022 | Micron, ID |
| Nishi Ravindran (M.S. Chem. Eng.) | 2021 | Global Foundries, NY |
| Nayelie Morales-Colon (B.S., visiting) | 2021 | M.S., Univ. of Puerto Rico – Mayaguez |
| Kevin Matthew (M.S. Mat. Sci. Eng.) | 2020-2021 | Micron, ID |
| Guruprasad Jayachandran (M.S. Mat. Sci. & Eng.) | 2020-2021 | Intel, NM |
| Jakub Pepas (B.S. Mat. Sci. Eng.) | 2020-2021 | Ph.D., Georgia Tech. |
| Shaun Tauro (M.S. Chem. Eng.) | 2020-2021 | Global Foundries, NY |
| Mohammed Shariff (M.S. Chem. Eng.) | 2020 | Global Foundries, NY |