
Group photo taken in summer 2025 at the engineering building of Mason's Fairfax campus.
Prof. Ethan C. Ahn
Prof. Ethan Ahn joined the faculty of Electrical Engineering (EE) at George Mason University in 2023. He holds the VMEC endowed professorship. He was an Assistant (2016-2022) and Associate (2022-2023) Professor at UTSA (the University of Texas at San Antonio). Previously, he served as a Senior Panel Process Engineer at Apple, Inc. (Cupertino, CA) and as a post-doctoral researcher at Stanford University. He received his Ph.D. in EE at Stanford University in 2015, under the supervision of Prof. H.-S. Philip Wong (https://nano.stanford.edu). Before joining Stanford, he was a research scientist with the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) in Seoul, Korea (2007-2010). He is the author of over 80 peer-reviewed research journal and conference papers and wrote one book chapter of Emerging Nanoelectronic Devices. Prof. Ahn has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the NSF ExLENT grant (2025), the Naval Research Laboratory Summer Fellowship (2022), the AFOSR Quantum Electronic Solids/Condensed Matter Physics grant (2019-2022), the NSF EAGER grant (2019-2020), and the Air Force Research Laboratory Summer Fellowship (2019-2021). He currently serves as an editorial board member for Scientific Reports, has served as a technical committee member for IEEE EDS (2017-2020) Optoelectronic Devices, and currently serves as Vice Chair for IEEE EDS Northern Virginia/Washington DC Chapter. At Mason, Dr. Ahn serves as Associate Director of QSEC (Quantum Science and Engineering Center) and TIG (technology interest group) chair of Electrical Engineering for Electronics and Circuits. He loves music and wine, being an amateur guitarist and a collector of California Napa Cab wines.

Research Associates
Dr. Sezin Sayin
Process Engineer at Mason NanoFab Facility (NFF)
Previous Degree: PhD in Electrical Engineering, George Washington University
Dissertation Topic: Development of Liquid-Phase Plasmonic Sensor Platforms for Biomedical Diagnostic Applications
Research Interest: Plasmonics, Nanofabrication & Nanocharacterization

Graduate Students
PhD Candidate
Mason NanoLab PhD students are working at the forefront of experimental nanoelectronics. They are the most experienced users of Mason's NanoFab Facility cleanroom.
Fitunerediate G. Gebeyehu
Graduate Research Assistant (GRA)
QSEC (Quantum Science & Engineering Center) Summer GRA (Mason Office of the Provost, Graduate Division, 2025)
Program at Mason: PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering
Previous Degree: BS in Electrical Engineering, Bahir Dar University (Ethiopia)
Research Interest: 2D Materials, Atomristor

We're hiring a new PhD student. Feel free to apply!
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MS Candidate
Mason NanoLab Master's students are on a thesis track (meaning that they're doing real research) while helping with courses in Semiconductor Engineering.
Khang B. Diep
STEM Student Employment Program (SSEP) at US Naval Research Lab
Program at Mason: BAM (Bachelor's to Accelerated Master's) w/ BS in Electrical Engineering and MS in Electrical Engineering, Class of 2026
Research Interest: Large-scale Exfoliation of 2D Materials, Light-Matter Interaction in 2D Materials

Nigama V. Vajjula
Program at Mason: MS in Electrical Engineering, Class of 2026
ECE Department GTA (Graduate Teaching Assistant) Fall 2025
Previous Degree: BT in Biomedical Engineering, Lovely Professional University (India)
Research Interest: Finite Element Simulation (COMSOL) of Electrostrictive FET, PCM

John A. Baban
Program at Mason: MS in Electrical Engineering, Class of 2026
Previous Degree: BS in Physics, George Mason University
Research Interest: Hardware Security of Emerging Nonvolatile Memory

Isa I. Saleheen
Program at Mason: MS in Electrical Engineering, Class of 2026
ECE Department GTA (Graduate Teaching Assistant) Fall 2025, Spring 2026
Previous Degree: BS in Electrical and Electronics Engineering, BRAC University (Bangladesh)
Research Interest: 2D Material-enabled Artificial Leaf

Sean Peregonov
Program at Mason: MS in Electrical Engineering, Class of 2026
Previous Degree: BS in Chemistry, George Mason University
Research Interest: Defect Control in 2D Materials

Hwijung (James) Kang
Program at Mason: MS in Electrical Engineering
ECE Department GTA (Graduate Teaching Assistant) Spring 2026
Previous Degree: BS in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Yonsei University (South Korea)
Research Interest: Triboelectric Sensor

Tayga Alaca
Program at Mason: MS in Electrical Engineering
ECE Department GTA (Graduate Teaching Assistant) Spring 2026
Previous Degree: BS in Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Middle East Technical University (Turkey)
Research Interest: Modeling and Simulation of RRAM
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Philip A. Acatrinei
Program at Mason: BAM (Bachelor's to Accelerated Master's) w/ BS in Mechanical Engineering and MS in Electrical Engineering, Class of 2027
Research Interest: Laser-induced Graphene (co-advised by Dr. Kang of Mechanical Engineering), UV Radiation, Quantum Materials

Undergraduate Students
Mason NanoLab UG students are unlike others. They're project leaders.
Pranav U. Choori
Process Engineer at NFF (NanoFab Facility)
NanoLab Undergraduate Researcher
ECS Travel Grant Awardee (2025, Electronics/Photonics Division)
Program at Mason: BS in Electrical Engineering, Class of 2026
Research Interest: Nanofab, PCM

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Fatemah K. Bahzad
ECE Undergraduate Advisory Board Student Member
NanoLab Undergraduate Researcher
Program at Mason: BS in Computer Engineering, Class of 2026
Research Interest: Thermal Engineering of 2D Materials and Devices ​​​​
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Emily Keung
Mason URSP (Undergraduate Research Scholars Program) 2025 Awardee
2026 Mason Representative for the Network for Undergraduate Research in Virginia (NURVa)
NanoLab Undergraduate Researcher
Program at Mason: BS in Chemistry, Class of 2027
Research Interest: VOC Adsorption by 2D Materials, Nanochemistry​
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Afifa Asad
NanoLab Undergraduate Researcher
Program at Mason: BS in Electrical Engineering, Class of 2027
Research Interest: 2D Transistor
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Evan Greene
NanoLab Undergraduate Researcher
Program at Mason: BS in Electrical Engineering, Class of 2028
Research Interest: Exfoliation and Transfer of 2D Materials​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​
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Research Interns
Our super-cool interns are the life members of the Mason Nano Lab.
VMEC (Virginia Microelectronics Consortium)
2025: Noreen Hossain (University of Virginia, Gold Award 2nd Place Winner), Julia Rodrigues (William & Mary, Gold Award 1st Place Winner)
2024: Julia Rodrigues (William & Mary, Gold Award Winner), Michael Liang (Virginia Tech)
ASSIP (Aspiring Scientists Summer Internship Program)
2025 (Photo Contest 1st Place Winner): Aarna Gupta (Oakton High), Aditi Karnik (Chantilly High), Emma Graf (Walt Whitman High), Sean Kim (Centreville High), Suan Cho (Sunset High)
2024: Anusha Agarwal (TJ High), Risha Krishnan (Chantilly High, went to Columbia University)




Summer 2025 lunch meeting(?) with VMEC and ASSIP interns at Johnson Center of GMU
Alumni (UTSA Roadrunners)
Ashkan Aminian (MS in Electrical Engineering, 2023)
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Md.Khirul Anam (PhD in Electrical Engineering, 2022) @ Intel
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Pratheek Gopalakrishnan (PhD in Electrical Engineering, 2022) @ Intel
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Ann Rose Sebastian (PhD in Electrical Engineering, 2022) @ Tokyo Electron
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Hebin Roy Cherian (PhD in Electrical Engineering, 2022) @ Micron
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Joshua Procell (BS in Electrical Engineering, 2022)
Chris Carley (MS in Advanced Materials Engineering, 2021)
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Nhu Huynh (MS in Advanced Materials Engineering, 2021)
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Danny Espinoza (MS in Advanced Materials Engineering, 2021)
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Spencer Palmer (BS in Electrical Engineering, 2021)
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Susana Ortega Contreras (MS in Electrical Engineering, 2019)
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Hebin R. Cherian (MS in Electrical Engineering, 2018)
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Melissa Escobar (BS in Mechanical Engineering, 2017)
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Azeez Layeni (BS in Electrical Engineering, 2017)

Visitors and Interns (@UTSA)
Prof. Heonchang Yoo (Korea University, 2020)
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Arushi Shrivastava (International Institute of Information Technology, India, 2020)
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Guillermo Olivarria Arnold (Universidad de Sonora, Mexico, 2019)
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Kyle Slattery (Northwest Vista College, 2019)
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Dr. Laura Verdugo (Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, Mexico, 2018-2019)
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Robert Mendoza (Northwest Vista College, 2018)
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H.-J. Seong (Kyung-gi Science High School, Korea, 2018)
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C. Kim (Kyung-gi Science High School, Korea, 2018)
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John Cruz (School of Science and Technology, San Antonio, 2018)
