University of Texas at Austin

Principle Investigator

Chih-Kang Shih

Principle investigater, Professor

2014-now: Arnold Romberg Endowed Chair in Physics, University of Texas at Austin.
2004-2014: Jane and Roland Blumberg Professor of Physics, University of Texas at Austin.
2001-2003: Professor of Physics, University of Texas at Austin.
1996-2001: Associate Professor, University of Texas at Austin.
1990-1996: Assistant Professor, University of Texas at Austin.
1988-1989: PostDoc Researcher, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, NY.
1982-1988: Ph.D, Stanford University

Students and Researchers

Fan Zhang

Postdoc Researcher

Dr. Zhang graduated from University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) with a B.Sc in 2015 and got his PhD degree in physics from Virginia Tech at the end of 2021. He worked on STM characterization of TMDCs and ferroelectric materials and is now working on ARPES and STM study of 2D electronic materials.

Lisa Frammolino

Graduate Student

Lisa has a Bachelor’s degree in physics from Texas State University. She is interested in investigating the atomic structure and electronic properties of 2D Van der Waals materials and their heterostructures. She prepares these materials using CVD and MBE growth techniques and characterizes them using Low-Temperature Scanning Tunneling Microscopy/Spectroscopy (LT-STM/S).

Yanxing Li

Graduate Student

Yanxing graduated from University of Sicience and Technology Beijing with a B.Sc and joined Shih group in 2020. He is interested in the nanoscale electronic properties of low dimensional materials using STM and Double-Coil system.

Andrew E Murphy

Graduate Student

Andrew graduated from Columbia University with a B.A. in Physics. He is interested in the growth and analysis of 2D materials through techniques such as CVD, MBE, STM/S and ARPES. He is also a professional desginer of scientific instruments.

Xinyue Peng

Graduate Student co-advised by Prof. Baldini

Xinyue got her Bachelor's degree at Fudan University and joined Shih's lab in 2021. She's interested in CVD growth of Transition Metal Dichalcogenides (TMDs) and Angle-resolved Photoemission Spectroscopy (ARPES).

Fuxiang Chen

Graduate Student

Fu-Xiang Chen got his B.S degree with physics major and EE minor from NTNU and M.S from NYCU at Taiwan. He has many experiences of STM stduies and TMD system. Now in our group, he is working on TMD growth by CVD method and STM stduy on device related property.

Yiyuan Luo

Graduate Student

Yiyuan received his Bachelor degree of Science from Southern University of Science and Technology, 2023. He used to focus on the growing and thermoelectric behaviour of polycrystalline MnSb2Te4. He is now a 2nd year PhD candidate in UT, discovering his research interest in Shih's Group. Yiyuan love swimming and he is also a fan of formula 1.

Xiaoyu Wei

Graduate Student

Xiaoyu graduated from University of Science and Technology of China with a Bachlor's degree in 2024. He is a PhD student now and joined Shih's group in 2024. He is focusing on STM studies and TMD materials.

Group photos

Group photo shot on March 2023

Group Alumni

Former members of our group have now become elites in the professional field

Former Students

S. Gwo (Ph.D. 1993)

Now Full Professor, Physics Department, National Tsing-Hwa University; Recipients of 1993 AVS graduate student prize; Recipient of the nation’s most outstanding young scientist in 2001, Taiwan.

A.R. Smith (Ph.D. 1995)

Now Full Professor, Director of Quantum Institute, Physics Department, Ohio University. Recipient of Presidential Early Career Award (PECAS).

K. J. Chao (Ph.D. 1997)

Now technical staff, Evans and Associates, Sunnyvale, CA, Recipients of 1997 AVS graduate student prize.

Hongbin Yu (Ph.D. 2001)

Now Associate Professor at Arizona State University, Recipient of 2001 AVS graduate student prize.

Ning Liu (Ph.D. 2001)

Now Staff Member, Freescale, Recipient of the 2001 UT Ben Streetman Prize for outstanding research in Microlectronics.

Han Htoon (Ph.D. 2001)

Now Permanent Staff Member at Los Alamos National Lab., Recipient of the 1999 MRS best poster presentation award.

Soyeun Park (Ph.D. 2003)

Now Associate Professor, Keimyung University, South Korea

Hoki Lyeo (Ph.D. 2004)

Now research staff member at KIST, South Korea

Jeff Weimeri (Ph.D. 2005)

Now at United State Air Force

D. Kulik (Ph.D. 2005)

Now technical staff at Cypress semiconductors.

Daejin Eom (Ph.D. 2005)

Now technical staff member at KIST, Korea.

Niraj Kulkarni (Ph.D. 2005)

Now staff member at INTEL.

Andreas Muller (Ph.D. 2007)

Now Associate Professor at University of Southern Florida

Pablo Bianucci (Ph.D. 2007)

Now Associate Professor, Concordia University, Montreal Canada

Joonho Bae (Ph.D. 2007)

Now Staff member, Samsung

Chris Wieland (Ph.D. 2008)

Now US Airforce

Edward B. Flagg (Ph.D. 2008)

Now Assistant Professor, University of West Virginia, USA

Alex Khajetoorian (Ph.D. 2008)

Now Full professor and head of the scanning probe department, Institute of Molecules and Materials, Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.

Shengyong Qin (Ph.D. 2009)

Now Professor, University of Science and Technology China

Jungdae Kim (Ph.D. 2010)

Now Associate Professor University of Ulsan, South Korea

Jisun Kim (Ph.D. 2011)

Now Research Staff at University of British Columbia, Canada

Charlotte Sanders (Ph.D. 2013)

Now Assistant Professor, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark

Chris Mann (Ph.D. 2013)

Now at Nanohmic, Austin

Huan Li (Ph.D. 2014)

Now at Intel

Miri Choi (Ph.D. 2014)

Now at Intel

Hyoungdo Nam (Ph.D. 2015)

Now at Intel

Ping-Hsiang Su (Ph.D. 2016)

Now at Intel

Yuxuan Chen (Ph.D. 2016)

Now at Lam Research Corp, CA

Alex Johnson (Ph.D. 2017)

Now at Intel

Madisen Holbrook (Ph.D. 2021)

Now PostDoc at Columbia University

Woojoo Lee (Ph.D. 2021)

Now assistant professor at KIST

Mengke Liu (Ph.D. 2022)

Now PostDoc at Harvard

Hyunsue Kim (Ph.D. 2024)

Now at Micron

Jia Yu (Ph.D. 2024)

Now at Intel

Former Researchers

F. K. Men, (PostDoc 1995)

Now Professor at National Chun-Zhen University, Jia-Yi, Taiwan

X. D. Wang (PostDoc 1999)

Now Technical Staff at Motorola, Phoenix, AZ.

C. S. Jiang （PostDoc 2001)

Now Technical Staff at National Renewable Energy Lab., Golden, CO.

Q.Q. Wang (PostDoc 2003

Now full Professor at Wu-Han University, China

J. Li (PostDoc 2005)

Now professor at Peking University, China

X. Y. Wang (PostDoc 2006)

now Professor, Nanjing University, China.

Murat Ozer (PostDoc 2007)

Now at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Sébastien Founta (PostDoc 2008)

Now High School Science Teacher at Summit Christian Academy, Austin

Jisun Kim (PostDoc 2012)

Now Research Associate at University of British Columbia.

Fei Cheng (PostDoc 2017)

Now Research Staff at the University of Rochester.

Chendong Zhang (PostDoc 2008)

Now Professor at Wuhan University, China

Yutsung Tsai (PostDoc 2017)

Siyuan Zhu (PostDoc 2017)

Now Research Scientist at West Lake University, PRC.

Hyoundo Nam (PostDoc 2018)

now at intel

Chunyuan Wang (PostDoc 2020)

Weiting Hsu (PostDoc 2020)

Now Assistant Professor at National Yangming Jiaotong University