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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, 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.

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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

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Essa Mohammed M. Asiri

Ministry of Education in Saudi Arabia Scholarship Awardee
Program at Mason
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PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering

Previous Degree: MS in Electrical Engineering, George Mason University

Research Interest: Wide Bandgap Semiconductor

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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

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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

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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. 
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

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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
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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Alvin Lim

2026 CACI Scholar

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

Research Interest: RRAM

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Akosua S. Sarpong

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

Research Interest: Microneedle Array

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Tara A. Kamrani

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

Research Interest: RRAM

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Daniel J. Cheng

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

Research Interest: PCM

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Hailey R. Mahler

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

Research Interest: PCM

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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   â€‹

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

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