People
Lab Director
Thomas Beechem leads the Specere Laboratory at Purdue, which focuses on leveraging nanoscale phonon-physics to create thermal, spectroscopic (i.e., sensing), and infrared solutions.
Thomas joined the faculty of Purdue University’s Mechanical Engineering Department in August of 2021. Beforehand, he was a scientist at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, NM, for 12 years where he held an affiliate appointment with the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies (CINT). He has authored more than 85 archival publications, holds 5 patents, and had his work selected as the featured “cover article” on 5 separate occasions by 6 different periodicals. He received a 2015 Defense Program Award of Excellence and was named one of Sandia’s “Up and Coming Innovators” in 2016. In 2017, he was named an associate editor for the Journal of Heat Transfer, a role that he remains in today.
ResearchGate | Google Scholar | Purdue Faculty Page | LinkedIn
Graduate Researchers
fernando vega
Project: Electron-Based Spectroscopic Ellipsometric Imaging of Defects (Sandia Academic Alliance LDRD)
Research Interests: Optical property characterization, Oxide materials, Assistive Technology
Linkedin ⇢
Walter smith
Project: Three-Dimensional Ferroelectric Microelectronics (3dFEM EFRC⇢)
Research Interests: Ferroelectric materials, Raman and photoluminescence spectroscopy
Linkedin ⇢
Shuhang Lyu
Project: Mechanics of Nanoscale Thru Silicon Vias
Research Interests: Microfabrication, Semiconductor packaging
Linkedin ⇢
jacob minyard
Project: Polaritonic Energy Transport
Research Interests: Microelectronics Cooling, Ellipsometry, Optical Properties
Linkedin ⇢
abdulaziz alkandari
Project: Anharmonic Lattice Dynamics in Thermal Transport and Spectroscopy (Co-Advised with Xiulin Ruan)
Research Interests: Nanoscale Thermal Transport, 1st Principles Computational Simulation, Phonon Physics
Google Scholar ⇢ Linkedin ⇢
Edward walker
Project: Spectroscopic Nanoscale Thermometry
Research Interests: Microelectronics Cooling, Hardware Characterization, Thermal Physics
Sahej Sharma
Project: Advanced Spectroscopy of Semiconductors Materials.
Research Interests: Spectroscopy, Consumer Toys, Ferroelectric Materials.
Linkedin ⇢
ananya Srivastava
Project: Circuit Design to Analyze Self-Heating Effect in FinFETs
Research Interests: RTL Design, Front-End VLSI
Linkedin ⇢
Undergraduate Researchers
Arihant Kaul
Project: Optical Property Characterization in the Infrared
Research Interests: Nanophotonics, Thermal Sensing, Propulsion Systems, Aerodynamics, Astronomy, Aerospace Systems
Linkedin ⇢
Bradon Timms
Project: Raman Shifts of Ferroelectric AlBN
Research Interests: Raman spectroscopy, Optical Properties, Semiconductors
Epiphany White
Project: NHZO Defect Characterization
Research Interests: Assistive technology, Ramen and Photoluminescence spectroscopy, Optical Properties
Linkedin ⇢
Jessica Jittu
Project: MXenes Photoinduced Phase Change
Specere Alumni
Zak Piontkowski
Post-Doctoral Researcher, 2020-2021
Current Position:
Senior Member of Technical Staff, Applied Optical and Plasma Sciences Department
Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM
Amun Jarzembski
Post-Doctoral Researcher, 2019-2021
Current Position:
Senior Member of Technical Staff, Applied Optical and Plasma Sciences Department
Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM
Elbara Ziade
Specere Mentee, 2017-2021
Current Position:
Thermal Design
Apple Inc., Seattle, WA
Christopher Saltonstall
Post-Doctoral Researcher, 2016-2018
Current Position:
Senior Member of Technical Staff
Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM
Michael Goldflam
Post-Doctoral Researcher, 2015-2017
Current Position:
Principal Scientist
STR, San Diego, CA
Colin Landon
Post-Doctoral Researcher, 2014-2015
Current Position:
Nanoscale Thermal Modeling Scientist
Intel Corporation, Hillsboro, OR
Ryan Shaffer
Graduate Student Intern, 2013-2015
Current Position:
Member of Technical Staff
Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM
Luke Yates
Undergraduate Student Intern, 2011-2013
Current Position:
Senior Member of Technical Staff
Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM
