Raymond is a graduate student at SDLE Center
- Enrolled in PhD program in Materials Science and Engineering in August 2019
Alma mater: St. Olaf College, Minnesota
- BS in Physics and Chemistry (major)
Previous research experiences
a. St. Olaf CURI (Collaborative Undergraduate Research and Inquiry)
- Designed and implemented a new protocol to study frictional properties of 2D materials such as single-layer graphene and molybdenum disulfide
- Reworked existing LabView code to fit new project outlooks
b. St. Olaf DUR (Direct Undergraduate Research)
- Used integrated QCM (quartz crystal microbalance) and indenter probe to measure the frictional properties of nanoscopic interfaces
- Streamlined process of constructing samples and worked on data acquisition
c. Washington University in St. Louis
- Grew thin films of SiO2 on silica chips using tube furnace
- Exfoliated hBN, graphene, and RuCl3
- Used micro-manipulation and stacking techniques to create 2D heterostructures
- Used SEM and AFM to characterize the surfaces of devices
- Printed circuits using EBL (e-beam lithography)
Current projects
a. Real-World Backsheets, which aims at modeling the degradation of field-exposed polymeric backsheets (interested in the effects of climate, location, and array layout)
b. KGC modeling, which makes use of machine learning and real climate data to cluster like climate conditions that affect degradation mechanisms in polymeric components of PV systems
Research interests: Spatiotemporal modeling, polymer degradation, spectroscopy
