Our Team
Describe your team here.
Zhenggang is currently a master student in Mechanical Engineering focus on Micro/Nano Engineering at Columbia University. Since he joined the lab in September 2025, he has explored the 2D heterostructure electronics and optoelectronics and is currently working on sliding cap for general-purpose applications based on CVD graphene.
Zhenggang earned his bachelor’s degree in Intelligent Sensing Engineering from Tianjin University. His research experiences in undergraduate cover MEMS sensing and actuation, signal processing, embedded systems and robotic control.
Yu-Tang (Neos) Luo is a Ph.D. student in the Hone Lab at Columbia University. His current research focuses on the fabrication of two-dimensional twist-moiré devices and the study of correlated quantum states in van der Waals heterostructures. He is particularly interested in using optical and electrical measurements to probe the formation, dynamics, and possible ultrafast control of emergent electronic phases in low-dimensional quantum materials.
Neos received his B.S. in Physics from National Tsing Hua University and his M.S. from National Taiwan University. Prior to joining Columbia, he worked as a research assistant in the laboratories of Professors Li-Chyong Chen and Kuei-Hsien Chen, where he studied the vapor-phase growth of transition metal dichalcogenides using CVD, PECVD, and MOCVD techniques, with broader interests in light-matter interactions and exciton dynamics in two-dimensional materials.
Yiping began her postdoctoral research at Columbia University in February 2023, where she is currently focused on fabricating 2D twist moiré devices and studying the ultrafast dynamic response of correlated physics. Her research, conducted under the Max Planck New York Center Postdoc Fellowship, aims to uncover the underlying physics of the formation of correlated states and their ultrafast control, contributing to the advancement of quantum materials and their applications.
Yiping received her B.S. in Physics from Renmin University of China in 2016, where she engaged in undergraduate research on the optical properties of nanomaterials. She completed her Ph.D. in Physics at Boston College in 2022, under the guidance of Professor Ken Burch. Her Ph.D. work focused on Raman spectroscopy, with a particular emphasis on quantum spin liquids, charge density waves, and charge transfer.
Xuanjing is a PhD student in Materials Science and Engineering at Columbia University. Since joining the lab in September 2021, she has been exploring the application of low-dimensional materials in superconducting devices, contributing to the advancement of quantum information research.
Xuanjing earned her B.S. in Physics from Fudan University, where she worked with Prof. Shu on studying candidates for quantum spin liquids. When she is not in the lab, Xuanjing enjoys hiking, working out, playing tennis, and cooking.
Research Interest: graphene/hBN lateral heterostructures
Education: B.S, M.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Seoul National University, Korea
Research Interest: 2D Heterostructures, 2D Transfer, 2D Material Synthesis
Snehal is a master’s student in Chemical Engineering, with a concentration in Electrochemical Energy. Her current research interests focus on CVD graphene synthesis, scalable transfer of 2D materials, and copper electropolishing.
She earned her B.Tech. in Chemical Engineering from the National Institute of Technology Karnataka (NITK), India. Prior to Columbia, Snehal worked as a New Product Introduction (NPI) Engineer at AT&S India, where she supported the development, optimization, and scale-up of advanced PCB manufacturing processes.
Samantha is a PhD student in Materials Science and Engineering. She joined the group in September 2025 and has been studying transport in 2D materials and their applications in superconducting qubits.
Samantha earned her B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering in 2024 from Cornell University, where she studied the synthesis of novel magnetic materials by laser-assisted rapid thermal processing with Prof. Atieh Moridi.
Matthew Beck is a mechanical engineering Doctoral Candidate in the School of Engineering and Applied Science SEAS studying programmable quantum materials (Pro-QM). Matthew is from Monmouth County, New Jersey, and earned a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from Rowan University. Matthew served in several university leadership roles at Rowan University, including Student Government Association (SGA) President and Assistant Vice President of Academic Affairs. Matthew also has several years of industry experience working at Lockheed Martin in advanced electronic packaging. While at Columbia, Matthew has served as the Graduate SEAS Senator for the Univerity Senate, the mechanical engineering department representative for the Engineering Graduate Student Council, and as Ph.D. Career Chair for the Mechanical Engineering Graduate Association.
Li Yuan is a Postdoctoral Research Scientist at Columbia University in the group of Professor James Hone. His research focuses on two-dimensional materials and van der Waals heterostructures, with interests spanning materials synthesis, nanoscale characterization, and the interplay between structure, mechanics, and emergent physical properties.
Li received his B.S. in Engineering Mechanics from Tsinghua University in 2017 and his M.S. in Solid Mechanics from Tsinghua University in 2020. He earned his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics from the University of Pennsylvania under the guidance of Professor Robert W. Carpick in 2025. His doctoral research combined advanced scanning probe techniques, spectroscopy, and theoretical modeling to investigate friction, fracture, and self-assembly in atomically thin materials.
Katherine is a doctoral student in the Material Science and Engineering Program. Since joining the group in February 2024, her focus is on the synthesis of ultra-high pure transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) and the study of epitaxial thin films using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). While at Columbia University, she is a Columbia Nano Initiative (CNI) TEM superuser.
Katherine earned her B.S. in Chemistry and Engineering Chemistry in 2022 from Stony Brook University, where she studied the microwave-assisted synthesis of different nanoscale formulations of binary metal sulfides for battery applications under the guidance of Prof. Stanislaus Wong.
Jesse began his postdoctoral research in the Hone Lab in June 2022. His work focuses on improving the performance and scalability of superconducting quantum devices through the incorporation of two-dimensional van der Waals materials.
Jesse received his B.S. in physics from the City College of New York in 2014, working with Professor Cory Dean to characterize remnant impurity scattering in high quality encapsulated graphene devices through the summer of 2016. In May 2022, he received his Ph.D. in physics from Washington University in St. Louis, where he studied the electronic properties of heterostructures comprising graphene and the layered Mott insulator and putative quantum spin liquid alpha-ruthenium trichloride with Professor Erik Henriksen.
Thesis:
"Electronic, Optical, and Thermal Probes of the Layered Mott Insulator " by Jesse Balgley
Over the past ten years, a primary focus has been on two-dimensional materials created from atomically thin sheets. Hone and collaborators have shown that an atomic sheet of carbon, known as graphene, is the strongest material ever measured. Hone has also developed new ways of manipulating two-dimensional materials to create layered heterostructures, in which intrinsic properties can be studied due to the lack of environmental disorder, electrical and optical devices demonstrate the highest performance, and new properties emerge at atomically precise interfaces. In collaboration with biologists, Hone has developed tools that have revealed new processes by which cells sense the physical properties of their environment at the sub-micrometer scale.
Hone received a BS in physics from Yale University in 1990 and a PhD in physics from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1998.
Education: City University of New York-Hunter College Physics BA
Bio: NSF Fellow 2D materials
Hobbies: Voice over and art