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Shuck Lab

Hello! I am always on the lookout for new lab members. Whether you are a current undergraduate, a potential PhD student, or a postdoctoral researcher, please look at the research pages to see what kind of work our lab does. Reach out to me if you are interested in joining! In each research page, I list example projects that can fit under each scope, however those are not comprehensive by any means; it is meant as a starting point for discussion.

We develop and study advanced solid-state and 2D materials. These include MAX phases and their derived 2D MXenes, in addition to complex borides and 2D quantum phases. We focus on how composition, defects, surfaces, and interfaces govern behavior. Our work spans the full materials pipeline: predictive synthesis and processing (including multi-element and complex chemistries), rigorous structural and chemical characterization, and property measurements that connect fundamental mechanisms to real device-relevant performance. A central theme of the group is engineering materials with tunable electronic, optical, electrochemical, and thermal/phonon properties, enabling new scientific insights and next-generation technologies.

We emphasize quantitative, mechanism-driven measurement platforms to reveal how charge transport, ion intercalation, electron-phonon coupling, and surface chemistry control material behavior across temperature and environment. Current research directions include MXene-based synthesis, energy storage, and electrocatalysis (emphasis on interlayer ion dynamics and stability), high-temperature electronic/magnetotransport and optoelectronic response in layered solids, and surface phonon mapping using helium atom scattering as a unique probe of interfacial dynamics.

Within our lab, we aim to train students to become versatile experimental scientists who are comfortable operating at the edge of modern materials characterization. We emphasize advanced analysis using national user facilities (including synchrotron- and neutron-based techniques) where students learn to design impactful experiments, collect high-quality datasets, and extract quantitative insight from complex materials. At the same time, students are encourages to continuously expand their experimental tools, adopting and mastering new synthesis, processing, and measurement approaches as needed. Across all projects, we treat chemistry as a lever: by systematically tuning composition, defects, and surfaces, we uncover the fundamental mechanisms that govern electronic, ionic, optical, and phonon-driven properties.