Gilbert Group

Group Members

Dustin Gilbert, Assistant Professor, Materials Science

Dr. Dustin Gilbert is the head of the Gilbert Group at JIAM. He is a professor in the Tickle College of Engineering Materials Science Department.



Postdoctoral Researchers




Graduate Student Researchers


Namila Liyanage, Ph.D. Student of Physics, 2017-

Namila Liyanage began work at JIAM in 2018 after completing his first year of classes. He earned his master's degree from The University of Colombo, Sri Lanka.



Cameron Jorgensen, Ph.D. Student of Materials Science, 2019-

Cameron Jorgensen joined the lab in 2019. He previously worked at Idaho National Lab after earning a bachelor's degree at Brigham Young University in physics.



Charlotte Buchanan, Ph.D. Student of Materials Science, 2023-

Charlotte Buchanan joined the lab in 2023. She was an undergraduate student from our very own department and has decided to pursue a Ph.D. in our lab.



Undergraduate Student Researchers




Graduated Lab Members

Nan Tang, Ph.D. Student of Materials Science, 2018-2023

Nan Tang joined the lab in 2018 after graduating with a master's degree in materials engineering at Sichuan University in Chengdu, China. He graduated in 2023 and currently works at Western Digital.

Corisa Kons, Ph.D. University of South Florida, 2021-2022

Corisa started with our lab in 2021, working on electrodeposited high-entropy alloy nanostructures for high-temperature applications. Corisa was an amazing asset for our DARPA/AFOSR work, but has successfully found a great job at Northrop Grumman, starting August 2022.

Lizabeth Quigley, Senior, 2019-2021

Liz Quigley received her B.S. in mechanical engineering in 2021. She was recruited from Prof. Gilbert's 2018 MSE 201 class. She spent the summer of 2019 at NIST as part of the Gaithersburg SURF program. Liz is currently enrolled in a a Ph.D. program at Purdue University in Materials Science and Engineering.

James Lee, Senior, 2019

James Lee is currently pursuing a bachelor's degree in Materials Science. He worked with us in the summer in 2019 and built an arduino controlled thermoelectric tester for high-throughput investigations.

Joshua Norton, Senior, 2019

Joshua Norton was recruited from Prof. Gilbert's 2019 MSE 201 class. He helped build vacuum systems for thin-film deposion in our lab. Currently, Joshua is pursuing a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Tennessee.

Noah Hobson, Senior, 2019-21

Noah Hobson received his B.S. in Computer Science in 2021. He wrote this website and has worked to improve the communication of our laboratory research to a broader audience. Noah is currently enrolled in a Ph.D. program at Purdue University in Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Winston Wright, 2021

Winston joined our lab in the summer of 2021 and was part of my MSE 410 class before he graduated with his B.S. in MSE




Senior Design Teams

(Name [post-graduation program])

2021-2021

Title: Prevention of Flaking in Metal Coatings Serving as Electrodes in High Purity Germanium Gamma Radiation Detectors

Team: David Crigger, Eli Cristoph, Mollie Daniell, Joshua Moorey, Mohamed Shoieb


2020-2021

Title: Development of a Free Surface Electro-spinner for Respirator Applications

Team: Austin Houston, Katherine Gordon, Quinton Wright [Ph.D. @ Cornell], Richard Gaddis

Graduate Student Mentor Cameron Jorgensen


Title: Magnetic Properties of Compositionally Complex Materials

Team: James Lee [5+1 Ms.E. @ UTK], Ryan Heldt, Logan White, Winston Wright

Co-mentored with Prof. Philip Rack

Graduate Student Mentor Nan Tang and David Garfinkel


Title: Design and Construction of a High-Temperature Vacuum Furnace for Materials Synthesis and Planetary Geoscience Applications

Team: Cole Franz [Fulton Bellows, Ms.E. @ UTK], Kate Eikel, Noah Sloan, Kah Choong

Co-mentored with Dr. Wetteland and Prof. Sickafus


2019-2020

Title:Design and Construction of a Thermal Evaporator.

Team: Trent Charnock, Morgan Yount [Ph.D. @ UMN], Melanie Buziak [Ph.D. @ UTK], Caitlin Harpell

Co-mentored with Prof. Mashid Ahmadi

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