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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.

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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 and Devices, Atomristor

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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 as GTAs. 
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: Light-Matter Interaction in 2D Materials

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Nigama V. Vajjula

Program at Mason: MS in Electrical Engineering, Class of 2026

ECE Department GTA (Graduate Teaching Assistant) Fall 2025, Spring 2026

Previous Degree: BT in Biomedical Engineering, Lovely Professional University (India)

Research Interest: Electrostrictive FET

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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

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Isa I. Saleheen

Program at Mason: MS in Electrical Engineering, Class of 2026

ECE Department GTA (Graduate Teaching Assistant) Fall 2025, Spring 2026 (Outstanding GTA Award Winner)

Previous Degree: BS in Electrical and Electronics Engineering, BRAC University (Bangladesh)

Research Interest: Artificial Leaf, Ferroelectrics for Neuromorphic Computing

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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

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Hwijung (James) Kang

Program at Mason: MS in Electrical Engineering, Class of 2027

ECE Department GTA (Graduate Teaching Assistant) Spring 2026

Previous Degree: BS in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Yonsei University (South Korea)

Research Interest: Triboelectric Sensor

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Tayga Alaca

Program at Mason: MS in Electrical Engineering, Class of 2027

ECE Department GTA (Graduate Teaching Assistant) Spring 2026

Previous Degree: BS in Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Middle East Technical University (Turkey)

Research Interest: Nano FET

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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 in 2D Materials

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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

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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)

Program at Mason: BS in Chemistry, Class of 2026

Research Interest: VOC Adsorption by 2D Materials

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Afifa Asad

Student Technician at NFF (NanoFab Facility)
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

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Evan Greene

Nano Lab Representative for Nanotechnology Day (2025)

Program at Mason: BS in Electrical Engineering, Class of 2028

Research Interest: 2D Material Transfer

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Daniel J. Cheng

Program at Mason: BS in Computer Engineering, Class of 2029

Research Interest: TBD

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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), 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) 
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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)

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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)

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