
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, wine, British ale, and baseball, being an amateur guitarist (acoustic) and pianist (k-pop), a collector of California Napa Cab wines and British pub ales, and a Kia Tigers fan (KBO). He lives with his wife, chito, and luka.

Graduate Students
PhD Candidate
Mason NanoLab PhD students are working at the forefront of experimental nanoelectronics.
Fitunerediate G. Gebeyehu
GRA (2024-2026)/GTA (2026-2027)
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 and Devices, Atomristor

Essa Mohammed M. Asiri
Ministry of Education in Saudi Arabia Scholarship Awardee
Program at Mason: PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering
Previous Degree: MS in Electrical Engineering, George Mason University
Research Interest: Wide Bandgap Semiconductor

Khang B. Diep
STEM Student Employment Program (SSEP) at US Naval Research Lab
Program at Mason: PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering
Previous Degree: BS/MS in Electrical Engineering, George Mason University
Research Interest: Twisted 2D Materials for Quantum Computing

Sri S. Maram
GTA (2026-2027)
Program at Mason: PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering
Previous Degree: MS in Computer Engineering, George Washington University
Research Interest: Silicon Nanostructure

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 as GTAs.
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
GTA (2025-2026) (Outstanding GTA Award Winner)
Previous Degree: BS in Electrical and Electronics Engineering, BRAC University (Bangladesh)
Research Interest: Artificial Leaf, Ferroelectrics for Neuromorphic Computing

Sean Peregonov
Research Intern at Draper (Summer 2026)
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, Class of 2027
GTA (2026)
Previous Degree: BS in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Yonsei University (South Korea)
Research Interest: Triboelectric Sensor

Tayga Alaca
Density Fill Development Enginner Intern at Intel (Summer 2026)
Program at Mason: MS in Electrical Engineering, Class of 2027
GTA (2026)
Previous Degree: BS in Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Middle East Technical University (Turkey)
Research Interest: Nano FET
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Izak R. Johnson
Program at Mason: MS in Electrical Engineering, Class of 2027
Previous Degree: BS in Physics, College of William & Mary
Research Interest: 2D Transistor

Fatemah K. Bahzad
Program at Mason: MS in Electrical Engineering, Class of 2028
Previous Degree: BS in Computer Engineering, George Mason University
Research Interest: Heat Transport

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

Afifa Asad
Mason URSP (Undergraduate Research Scholars Program) 2026 Awardee
IEEE Nano Student Volunteer (2025)
Nano Lab Representative for Nanotechnology Day (2025)
Program at Mason: BS in Electrical Engineering, Class of 2027
Research Interest: 2D Transistor

Evan Greene
Nano Lab Representative for Nanotechnology Day (2025)
Program at Mason: BS in Electrical Engineering, Class of 2028
Research Interest: 2D Material Transfer

Alvin Lim
2026 CACI Scholar
Program at Mason: BS in Electrical Engineering, Class of 2028
Research Interest: RRAM

Akosua S. Sarpong
Program at Mason: BS in Electrical Engineering, Class of 2028
Research Interest: Microneedle Array

Tara A. Kamrani
Program at Mason: BS in Computer Engineering, Class of 2029
Research Interest: RRAM

Daniel J. Cheng
Program at Mason: BS in Computer Engineering, Class of 2029
Research Interest: PCM

Hailey R. Mahler
Program at Mason: BS in Electrical Engineering, Class of 2029
Research Interest: PCM

Alumni
Nigama Vajjula, MS in EE (May 2026)
Thesis: 2D Heterostructures for Electrostrictive Low-power Device: Finite-element Modeling, Simulation, and C-AFM Characterization
After graduation: Field Service Engineer @ Onto Innovation
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Khang Diep, MS in EE (May 2026)
Thesis: Photoluminescence Spectroscopy of Monolayer WSe2 on Twisted Hexagonal Boron Nitride
After graduation: PhD Candidate @ GMU ​
Research Interns
Our super-cool interns are the life members of the Mason Nano Lab.
VMEC (Virginia Microelectronics Consortium)
2026: Arielle Rodgers (Old Dominion University), Kyla Luby (Virginia Tech)
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)
2026: Suan Cho (Sunset High), Victoria Lee (TJ High), Prthika Lanka (Langley High), Talay Uhing (Rock Ridge High), Yunhan (Helen) Tong (McLean High)
2025 ASSIP Interns (Dr. Ahn's office door, Emma and Aarna in the cleanroom, all in the Fairfax lab)
2025 (Photo Contest 1st Place Winner): Aarna Gupta (Oakton High), Aditi Karnik (Chantilly High to UIUC), Emma Graf (Walt Whitman High to UIUC), Sean Kim (Centreville High to Georgia Tech), Suan Cho (Sunset High)
2024: Anusha Agarwal (TJ High to UPenn), Risha Krishnan (Chantilly High to Columbia University)




Summer 2025 lunch meeting with VMEC and ASSIP interns at Johnson Center of GMU

