Leadership

Eric Stach

Scientific Director, Singh Center for Nanotechnology,
Professor, Materials Science and Engineering
The Laboratory for Research on the Structure of Matter (LRSM)

Nanoscale Characterization Oversight Committee Chair

Eric Stach is a Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. He has held positions as Staff Scientist and Principal Investigator at the National Center for Electron Microscopy at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, as Associate, then Full Professor at Purdue University, and as Group Leader at the Center for Functional Nanomaterials at the Brookhaven National Laboratory.

He is a Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Hummingbird Scientific. He is also Secretary of the Board of Directors for the Materials Research Society, and oversees the Nanoscale Characterization Facility in the Singh Center for Nanotechnology.

Gerald G. Lopez, Ph.D.

Center Associate Director &
Director of Operations and Business Development
Singh Center for Nanotechnology

Dr. Gerald Lopez is the Director of Operations and Business Development and the inaugural Center Associate Director at the Singh Center. His role creates and executes business strategies to foster collaboration and improve the Center’s operations. His prior professional experience in academia and the semiconductor industry encompasses lithography process development and tooling as a former manager at the Singh Center; technical sales and support in direct-write lithography at GenISys, Inc.; his software engineering career at SITA; his former nanotechnology consultancy, Helio Nano, LLC; and his time as a graduate researcher at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Dr. Lopez founded and is the Board Chair for the Meeting for Advanced Electron Beam Lithography (MAEBL). Moreover, he serves in the leadership for the International Conference on Electron, Ion and Photon Beam Technology and Nanofabrication (EIPBN), having served as its 2021 Conference Chair. Today, he is one of the coordinators in the Mid-Atlantic Semiconductor Hub, a consortium aimed to elevate the region’s relevance in the CHIPS and Science Act. He is passionate about education, mentorship, and connecting the next generation to nano-enabled opportunities. Dr. Lopez received his Ph.D. and M.S. in Electrical & Computer Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and his B.S. in Computer Engineering cum laude from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County as a Meyerhoff Scholar and Janice A. Lumpkin Scholar.

George “Pat” Watson, Ph.D.

Director of User Programs
Singh Center for Nanotechnology

Pat Watson acts as the interface between the Singh Nanotechnology Center and the National Science Foundation’s National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure program.  Pat also assists new Singh Center users get started in the facility.

Gyuseok Kim, Ph.D.

Director of Workforce Development

Gyuseok Kim is the Director of Workforce Development at the Singh Center for Nanotechnology at the University of Pennsylvania. He manages the graduate student fellow (GSF) program that is designed to give Penn Master’s students hands-on processing experiences through the fabrication of devices in the cleanroom. He manages Nanotechnology Master’s degree program. He also runs various training and outreach programs for K-12, undergraduates, graduates, and underrepresented minorities (URM), such as the internship for the Community College of Philadelphia, NanoDay, and Semiconductor and Nanotechnology Initiatives at Penn (SNIP). He is an instructor of ESE 5360 and ESAP Nanotechnology courses. Prior to joining Singh Center, he worked at Penn as a postdoctoral fellow, at Samsung Electro-Mechanics as a senior engineer, and at Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht in Germany as a research assistant. He received a Ph.D. from Grenoble INP in France, MS and BS from Seoul National University in South Korea.

Douglas Yates, Ph.D.

Director, Nanoscale Characterization Facility

Since 1997, Dr. Yates has been the director of the Nanoscale Characterization Facility, which houses instruments for advanced electron and atomic force microscopy and ion scattering.   He has, cumulatively, twenty-seven years experience with the instruction, operation and maintenance of electron microscopes and related instruments.

Matt Brukman, Ph.D.

Director, Scanning and Local Probe Facility

Matthew Brukman manages the Scanning and Local Probe Facility, formerly the Nano-Bio Interface Center (NBIC). His primary research experience and interests include development of AFM-based techniques to characterize materials at the nano-scale — friction force microscopy, tissue mechanics, non-contact capacitance microscopy, and AFM design. Additionally, he has studied extreme ultraviolet (EUV) optics for photolithography.

Eric Johnston

Director, Quattrone Nanofabrication Facility

While overseeing the operations and management of the QNF, he is focused on building efficiencies in tool and process training that will improve outcomes for the user community, as well as making new tools and processes available. He comes from a microfluidics background and continues to provide training and support in that area.

Jay Kikkawa

Professor, Physics and Astronomy, 
Director, Property Measurement Facility

Dr. Kikkawa is a Professor in the Physics Department in the School of Arts and Sciences. He oversees the Property Measurement Facility.

Barry Derish

Director Facilities Operations
Singh Center for Nanotechnology

Barry is responsible for  day to day operations of the Singh Center for Nanotechnology including safety and security. Additionally he monitors and maintains all systems and equipment necessary to maintain the exacting environmental conditions needed for research in the various labs throughout the building.