kshankar@ualberta.ca

Dr. Piyush Kar

Dr. Kar has a Bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering from Utkal University and obtained his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Materials Science from the University of Nevada. He has previously held positions of Research Associate at the University of Nevada, Project Engineer at Globe Turbochargers and Research Scientist at Michigan State University. He joined the Shankar group in 2011 and has simultaneously pursued a part-time MBA degree. He specializes in leading edge nanomaterials research for renewable energy and biomedical applications. He previously achieved Ultrasensitive Immunoassays Using TiO2 Nanotube and Nanowire Arrays for Biomarker Detection. He is currently working on the optimized synthesis of ordered radial heterojunctions based on earth-abundant semiconductors.

kshankar@ualberta.ca

Ahmad Adl

Ahmad Adl ranked 67 in the nationwide university entrance exam in Iran taken by over 350,000 students. He graduated from Sharif University with a B.Sc. in Electrical and Computer Engineering. He subsequently obtained Masters degrees in ECE from both Iran University of Science and Technology and Dalhousie University. He joined the Shankar Research Group as a doctoral student in Sep 2010 and completed his Ph.D. candidacy exam in Summer 2013. He is currently researching the design, fabrication and characterization of Schottky diodes and thin film transistors made of ZnO and small molecule organic semiconductors for Transparent and Flexible Electronics applications.

kshankar@ualberta.ca

Samira Farsinezhad

Samira Farsinezhad holds a B.Sc. degree in Physics from Islamic Azad University and an M.Sc. degree in Photonics from Semnan University. She obtained the first rank in her graduating class during both her B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees. She held an Alberta Ingenuity doctoral recruiting scholarship in nanotechnology from 2010-2014, and is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Electrical & Computer Engineering at the UofA. Samira is the characterization guru in the Shankar Group. She has co-authored over 20 refereed publications on topics such as photonic crystal optical fibers, bottom-up solution-grown nanostructure arrays and photonic crystals, and nanoscale wetting phenomena.

kshankar@ualberta.ca

Ling-Hsuan Hsieh

Ling obtained her Bachelors degree and Masters degree from the University of Ottawa and University of Waterloo, respectively, in Electrical and Computer Engineering. She began her Doctoral studies at University of Alberta in September 2011. She is currently working on dye and quantum dot-sensitized solar cells.

kshankar@ualberta.ca

Benjamin Wiltshire

Ben obtained his B.Sc. degree in Engineering Physics from the University of Alberta. He began his M.Sc. degree in the Shankar Lab in Fall 2013 after doing a summer research internship and a 4th year Capstone Design Project under the supervision of Prof. Shankar. He holds an Alberta Innovates Graduate Student Scholarship and has co-authored 6 refereed publications to date. He is currently pursuing his Masters research on the effect of self-assembled monolayers on wetting and charge transport phenomena in TiO2 nanowire and nanotube arrays. Ben has accumulated strong expertise in photoluminescence and charge-transport measurements on organic semiconductor thin films and inroganic semiconductor nanostructures. As the Vice President (logistics), Ben also helped organize the Faculty of Engineering Graduate Research Symposium (FEGRS) in 2014.

kshankar@ualberta.ca

Mourad Benlamri

Mourad obtained dual masters degrees in Physics and Electrical Engineering from Brown University. He is currently co-supervised by Prof. Shankar and Prof. Barlage. He began his doctoral studies at U of A ECE in Sep 2011. He is working on low cost solution processed ZnO FETs for applications in power electronics and transparent flexible electronic devices.

kshankar@ualberta.ca

Yun Zhang

Yun obtained his B.Sc. degree in Physics from the University of Alberta. He joined the Shankar research group in Summer 2013 to pursue an M.Sc. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering. He is currently studying the optical properties of TiO2 nanotube arrays on both native and non-native substrates, and the effect of specific annealing regimens on morphological- and phase-transitions in anodic TiO2 nanotube arrays.

kshankar@ualberta.ca

Abdelrahman Askar

Abdelrahman obtained his B.Sc. in 2012 in Information Engineering and Technology while majoring in Electronics at the German University in Cairo in Egypt. He obtained his M.Sc. in Communication Technology (Major:Electronics) at the University of Ulm in Germany in 2014. He has prior experience in graphene-based MMICs, microfluidics for biomedical applications, silicon nanowires for photovoltaics and electrical characterization of GaN HEMTs. He began his Ph.D. in the Shankar Group at the UofA in Sep 2014 with a Doctoral Recruiting Scholarship, and is currently exploring research directions in charge-transfer excitons, microwave sensors and photoconductivity measurements. Abdelrahman recently obtained an Alberta Innovates Graduate Stduent Scholarship in Nanotechnology.