LHQS Alumni
Dr. Joe Kitzman
Joe earned his Ph.D. from MSU in the summer of 2023. During his time at the LHQS he worked on developing novel quantum acoustics experiments using superconducting qubit systems coupled to acoustic resonators. These experiments explored the open quantum systems behavior of these hybrid quantum acoustic devices and demonstrated a new type of phonon-based quantum bath engineering of a superconducting qubit. His Ph.D. work also explored the effects of phononic interference in the quantum regime and multi-modal quantum acoustic systems coupling to both bulk and surface phonon states. Joe is also a lover of cats.
Dr. Niyaz Beysengulov
Niyaz earned his Ph.D. in physics from the Kazan Federal University in Russia in a joint program with RIKEN (Wako, Japan). During his Ph.D. Niyaz studied two-dimensional electrons on the surface of liquid helium in micro-channel devices in the Low Temperature Physics Lab in RIKEN, where he worked with Dr. Kimitoshi Kono. There he demonstrated unprecedented control over the number of electron rows formed in microchannels and studied order-disorder phase transition in this low-dimensional electron system. Niyaz is now the Director of Quantum Engineering at EeroQ.
Dr. Liangji Zhang
Liangji graduated from MSU with a Ph.D. in the spring of 2022 and is currently a nanofabrication engineer in the cleanroom/nanofab at Washington University in St. Louis. During his Ph.D. Liangji studied low-dimensional electron systems in semiconductor systems and graphene heterostructures. A large portion of his work was focused on investigating low-dimensional electron systems in epitaxial halide perovskite thin films where he and collaborators demonstrated a variety of low-temperature coherent quantum transport phenomena in this exciting class of thin film materials. These efforts were a collaborative enterprise with the Molecular and Organic Excitonics Lab led by PI Richard Lunt at MSU.
Dr. Justin Lane
Justin graduated from MSU with a Ph.D. in the summer of 2021 and is currently a Mossman Postdoctoral Fellow in the Physics Department at Yale University working in the group of Prof. Jack Harris. During his Ph.D. Justin developed new circuit quantum electrodynamic (cQED) experiments to study superconducting qubits and how they interact with mechanical degrees of freedom, piezoelectric devices and superfluids. He also performed the first acoustoelectric transport measurements on exfoliated graphene devices in collaboration with colleagues from Prof. Erik Henriksen’s lab at Washington University in St. Louis.
Dr. Heejun Byeon
Heejun graduated from MSU with a Ph.D. in December of 2020. During his Ph.D. time in the LHQS Heejun did pioneering work coupling piezoelectric surface acoustic waves to electrons floating on superfluid helium. These coupled electronic systems are predicted to have unique and interesting transport properties and dynamics. Heejun’s experiments have opened the door to an entirely new class of SAW-based high-frequency experiments on the system of electrons on helium. Heejun is now a quantum engineer at EeroQ Corp. Before that Heejun was a postdoctoral scholar at Sandia National Laboratory. where he worked on the deterministic creation of optically active defects in AlN for application as quantum emitters.
Stephen Hemmerle
Steve graduated from MSU with a Masters in Physics in 2019. In the lab Steve worked on a variety of experimental and computational projects investigating the behavior of electrons on helium. He is currently a business analyst at Capitol One. Before this he worked as a Venture Associate at EeroQ Inc. as well as a founder of Invest Together LLC.
Dr. Mazin Khasawneh
Mazin’s primary interests while he was a postdoc in the group were associated with the coupling of piezeoelectric surface acoustic waves to graphene with the goal of creating density tunable acoustoelectric devices. Mazin was also instrumental in the earliest days of the lab by helping to turn the LHQS from an empty room into the state-of-the-art quantum measurement lab that it is today!
Dr. Kostyantyn Nasyedkin
Kostya’s primary interests while he was working as a postdoc in the group were in developing novel hybrid quantum systems using the strongly correlated systems of electrons on helium. Kostya and collaborators also demonstrated the first quantum phenomena in halide perovskite-based low-dimensional electron systems.
Before joining the LHQS team, Kostya was a research associate in the Quantum Condensed Phases Research Team at the RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science in Wako Japan. He earned his Ph.D. in physics from the B. Verkin Institute for Low Temperature Physics and Engineering in Kharkiv, Ukraine.
Kostya is now a staff scientist at Oak Ridge National Lab (ONRL).
Anna Turnbull
Anna graduated from MSU in 2017 with a BS in Physics and was a part of the initial team that built the LHQS from the ground up! During her time in the group Anna worked to help implement our first experiments coupling surface acoustic wave techniques to graphene devices.
Joshua Milem
Josh graduated from MSU in December 2017 with a BS in Physics. He is now a Cryo and Electronic Device Engineer at Bluefors Oy in Helskini Finland. During his time at MSU, Josh worked on Monte Carlo simulations of 2d electron systems in a collaborative effort to ultimately achieve novel qubits using electrons on the surface of liquid helium.
Taryn Stefanski
Taryn graduated from MSU in 2019 with a degree in Physics. She is now a graduate student at The University of Bristol. Her research interests are in quantum information processing and condensed matter physics, as well as the unique properties of electrons in low dimension systems and their potential applications. During her time at the LHQS, Taryn was part of a team working on novel cQED experiments coupling superfluids to superconducting qubit systems.
Evan Brook
Evan is a graduate student at UC Riverside working on a Ph.D. in Political Science. At MSU Evan studied physics, computational sciences, and mathematics and in the LHQS he worked with a team developing new experiments integrating superconducting qubits and superfluids.
Brennan Arnold
Brennan graduated with a B.S. in Physics from MSU in 2021 and is now a graduate student in the Physics Department at the University of Kentucky. His research interests lie in Condensed Matter Physics, Quantum Information Science, and Physics Education Research. At MSU he also worked as an undergraduate learning assistant for both Physics I and Physics II courses.