Latest News

May

Congrats to Declan for passing his Qualifying Exam!

May

Peifen's collaboration with Prof. Yu-Jung (Yuri) Lu from National Taiwan University is published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. Stay tuned for a cover soon... Well done Peifen!

May

Marina gives an invited presentation at the 16th Pacific Rim Conference on Ceramic and Glass Technology including Glass & Optical Materials Division Meeting (GOMD 2025) conference, part of the American Ceramic Society.

Apr

Big congrats to Declan for being recognized by NSF with a honorable mention for the graduate research fellowship program (GRFP).

Apr

Marina presents two invited talks at the Spring MRS meeting in Seattle, one on nanospectroscopy of halide perovskites (as a distinguished invited speaker of symposium "Advanced Scanning Probe Microscopy") and another in the "Integrating AI-Assisted Computation and Experimentation for Autonomous Laboratories" symposium. Thank you to all organizers for the invitations!

Mar

Marina presents an invited talk at the Spring ACS Meeting, as part of being selected as a finalist of the Mid-Career Energy Lectureship Award.

Jan

Marina is elected Fellow to the Optica Society. See information here.

Jan

Mansha, Declan, and Abby present talks at the SPIE Photonics West meeting.

Jan

Marina becomes Fellow of SPIE, the International Society for Optica and Photonics

Dec

Congrats to Peifen for finishing her PhD!

Dec

Marina presented an invited talk on at Fall MRS on materials for ultra-high temperature photonics. See symposium information here.

Dec

Marina co-organizes symposium "EL04 - Recent Advances in Hybrid Perovskites" during the Fall MRS meeting. Thank you to all 200+ presenters for a wonderful week!

Nov

Marina gives an invited seminar at the Alliance for Education, Science, Engineering and Design with Africa. Thanks Nutifafa, for the invitation.

Nov

Peifen's work on metal alloys is published in ACS Appl. Mater. & Interfaces.

Oct

Marina presents a seminar in the Department of Chemistry, Colorado School of Mines. Thank you Ryan for the kind invitation!

Oct

We have a new NSF award to investigate the role of carrier transport layers on perovskite photovoltaics' stability through machine learning.

Sep

Marina gives an invited presentation at the 7th International Conference on Perovskite Solar cells & Optoelectronics (PSCO-24) in Perugia, Italy. Thanks Henry, Annamaria, Filippo, and Mohammad for the invitation and for organizing an awesome meeting.

Aug

Marina presents an invited talk at the SPIE Optics+Photonics meeting in San Diego (Plasmonics: Design, Materials, Fabrication, Characterization, and Applications XXII conference). Thanks Yuri, for the very kind invitation!

Jul

Hannah Darr, former undergrad in our group, is highlighted by the College of Engineering alumni spotlight. Check the full story here!

Jun

Congrats Ece for finishing her PhD! Best wishes in your next position at GAF Energy!

Jun

Congrats to Mansha, for being awarded the 2024 Summer Graduate Student Researcher (GSR) Award. Great job!

Jun

Congrats Declan for passing his prelim exam! Great job!

May

Electrochemical Society meeting in SF: Marina gives an invited presentation about machine learning applied to perovskites and Declan presents a talk on optical emitters for thermophotovoltaics.

May

Margaret is awarded the Master's Thesis Award from our College of Engineering. Great job, Margaret! Check the news story here: https://engineering.ucdavis.edu/news/materials-science-alum-wins-jeffery-c-gibeling-masters-thesis-excellence-award

Apr

Congrats to Abby for being awarded a Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR). Nice job! See news stories from DOE and UC Davis.

Apr

Marina presents to invited talks at the Spring Materials Research Society in Seattle: "Novel Approaches to Synthesize and Characterize Stable Halide Perovskites and their Devices" and "Plasmonics and Metasurfaces—Design, Materials and Applications". Thanks to all organizers for the invitations.

Apr

Peifen presents her work at the Spring MRS Meeting in Seattle.

Mar

Abby gives a virtual talk for the Next-Generation Solar Energy PhD- Postdoc Seminar Series

Mar

Big congrats to Peifen for being selected as a Graduate Student Award Finalist for the 2024 MRS Spring Meeting, Seattle, WA. Well done Peifen!

Feb

Marina delivers an invited talk about optical materials for high-temperature photonics at the SPIE Advanced Lithography + Patterning, in San Jose. Thanks Tito and Alex for the kind invitation!

Feb

Mansha and Declan present their work at the Sandia-UC Davis Research Partnership Symposium: Climate Security. Marina gives an overview of the group's work on materials for sustainability.

Jan

Marina delivers an invited talk at the SPIE Photonics West meeting.

Jan

Marina presents an invited talk about ceramic materials for photonics and energy at the ICACC '24 Conference (48th International Conference and Exposition on Advanced Ceramics and Composites) from ACerS.

Dec

Abigail wins the "Richard and Joy Dorf Engineering Fellowship Award" from the College of Engineering, University of California, Davis.

Dec

Our group's research is highlighted in the UC Davis "In Great Focus" 2023 magazine, which features selected stories from our faculty, and their achievements attained through very generous, philanthropic contributions. Thank you to all UC Davis donors and their support to the Chancellor's Fellow Program! Check the full story here: https://giving.ucdavis.edu/impacts-giving/in-greater-focus-magazine-fall-2023/edge-of-energy

Dec

Marina becomes an Associate Editor at APL Materials! See details about the journal here: https://pubs.aip.org/aip/apm

Dec

Marina gives an invited talk at the "Next Generation Solar Energy (NGSE) Conference", on machine learning applied to hybrid perovskites. Thanks Carolin, for the kind invitation. See full program here: https://www.ngse.info/

Dec

The LeiteLab welcomes new PhD student Declan!

Dec

Marina presents two invited talks at the Fall MRS meeting, and co-organized the "EN05 Halide Perovskites—From Fundamentals to Applications" symposium.

Oct

Our collaboration with Profs. J. Munday and S. McCormack on optical emitters for thermophotovoltaics is published in Joule. Nicely done Mariama, Tao, and Margaret! Check out the paper here.

Oct

Our collaboration with Prof. van Benthem's group is published in the The Journal of the Electrochemical Society. Check the paper here!

Oct

Two awards in the group! Ece wins the "American Chemical Society (ACS) Fall meeting in the Division of Energy and Fuels – Silver Award" and Abby receives the "UC Davis Graduate Student Association Travel Award". Congrats everyone!

Oct

Peifen, Ece, Mansha, and Abby present their work at the Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Symposium at UC Davis!

Oct

Marina delivers two invited talks at the Brazil Materials Research Society Meeting (ML applied to halide perovskites and materials for ultra-high-temperature photonics). Thank you to all organizers for the invitations!

Sep

Our invited Perspective on "Emerging opportunities for hybrid perovskite solar cells using machine learning" is published in APL Energy (pdf), and highlighted as a cover. Great job Abby and Mansha!

Sep

The group receives a DARPA Disruptioneering award from the ATOM program, together with Profs. J. Munday and H. Houmayon (ECE / UC Davis).

Sep

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Sep

Congrats to Margaret for successfully finishing her MS in materials science and engineering!

Sep

Tao's work on materials for ultra-high-temperature photonics is published in ACS Appl. Optical Materials and featured on the journal's cover. Great job Tao! Read our paper here!

Aug

Marina delivers a key note and an invited talk at the I-MRS meeting in Cancun, Mexico. Thanks Federico and Fabian for the great days.

Aug

Abby, Ece, and Mansha present their work at the ACS Fall meeting in San Francisco.

Jul

Our work on machine learning applied to halide perovskites is highlighted by The Grainger Foundation Frontiers of Engineering (from the National Academy of Engineering) and the Science Daily.

Jul

Congrats to Mansha and Abby for passing their Qual Exams. Great job!

Jul

Marina is promoted to Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering!

Jun

Abby participates in the NSF-funded JUAMI summer school in Nairobi, and Marina gives an invited presentation. Thanks Sossina for the great meeting!

Jun

Marina gives an invited talk at the 14th World Conference on Thermophotovoltaic Generation (TPV-14). Thanks Andrej for the kind invitation!

Jun

Peifen is featured in this College of Engineering article "Materials Science Ph.D. Candidate Driven to Engineer Sustainable Future." Congrats Peifen!

Apr

Thanks ACS Energy Letters for the Energy Spotlight piece about out paper. Read the piece here, and check out the paper on our Publications page!

Apr

Abby and Dr. Leite release a new paper in ACS Energy Letters, entitled "Machine Learning Enables Prediction of Halide Perovskites’ Optical Behavior with >90% Accuracy". Thanks to all our collaborators!

Apr

The Leite Lab takes Spring MRS by storm! Marina delivers two invited talks, Abby and Peifen also give talks on hybrid perovskites and photonics, respectively.

Mar

Marina presents a summary of the group's work and its connection to the College of Engineering Next Level Research Vision at the Engineering on Tap online event. Thank you to our Associate Dean for Research, Raissa, for invitation.

Feb

Big congrats to Peifen for receiving the 2023 College of Engineering (COE) Excellence in Graduate Student Research Award. Go Peifen!

Feb

Kevin and Micah's paper entitled "Optical Tunability and Characterization of Mg−Al, Mg−Ti, and Mg−Ni Alloy Hydrides for Dynamic Color Switching Devices" is published in ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces. Read the paper on our Publications page now.

Feb

Marina presents the Colloquium in the Chemistry Department at the Federal University of Pernambuco and the one in the Physics Department at the Federal Rural University of Pernambuco (Brazil). Big thanks to Claudete and Ferraz for these invitations!

Feb

Tao, Peifen, and Dr. Leite submit a new paper to ACS Applied Optical Materials entitled "Scalable Superabsorbers and Color Filters Based on Earth-Abundant Materials". Well done all!

Feb

Professor Leite honored in Optica's Women in Science Tribute. Thanks for the kind words!

Feb

Marina presents a seminar at the Physics Department in Recife, Brazil. Thanks Anderson and Cid, for the kind invitation!

Jan

Leite Lab grad student Abby Hering presents her research in a talk entitled "Automated Optical Measurements and Machine Learning Analysis of Cs-FA Halide Perovskites" at SPIE Photonics West. Great job Abby!

Jan

Congrats to Ece for advancing to candidacy. Great job Ece!

Jan

Abby presents our work on machine learning applied to hybrid perovskites at the SPIE Photonics West Meeting in San Francisco. Well done Abby!

Nov

The group presented some of our recent results at the Fall Materials Research Society (MRS) Meeting in person and virtual. Marina gave two invited talks, Margaret presented her work on refractory materials for high-temperature photonics, and Abby gave a talk on the potential of machine learning to forecast the behavior of perovskites.

Nov

Congrats to Margaret on advancing to candidacy. Well done Margaret!

Oct

Marina presents an invited talk on machine learning applied to perovskites at the nanoGe meeting. Thanks Qiang, for the invitation - it was awesome to be back to in-person meetings!

Oct

Marina presents the group's work on photonics at the FiOS - Frontiers in Optics + Laser Science. Thanks Willie for the kind invitation!

Sep

Leite Lab members Abby, Ece, Mansha, and Peifen attend the UC Davis CHMS Graduate Research Symposium, where Peifen is awarded the Best Poster Presentation award. Congratulations!

Aug

Marina gives a Keynote talk at the LAOP - Latin American Optics and Photonics Conference. Thank you Anderson for the kind invitation!

Aug

Congrats to Peifen for advancing her candidacy. Well done Peifen!

Jun

Marina is elevated to the grade of IEEE Senior member.

Jun

Congrats to Peifen for being awarded the Summer Graduate Student Researcher (GSR) Award for summer 2022-23!

May

Marina delivers an invited talk on thermophotovoltaics at the Spring MRS Meeting.

May

Meghna is awarded the College of Engineering Jeffrey Gibeling Best Master’s Thesis Award. Well done Meghna!

May

Richa successfully defends her Ph.D. dissertation. Congratulations Dr. Lahoti!

Apr

Peifen and Tao’s paper on Transient Structural Colors with Magnesium-Based Reflective Filters has been published in Advanced Optical Materials. Check the article here.

Apr

Our paper on hot-carrier dynamics in near-infrared photocatalytic metals is published in Physical Review B.

Apr

Margaret is awarded the prestigious NSF-GRFP. Congrats Margaret!

Mar

John’s paper on machine learning applied to halide perovskites is published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry.

Jan

Leite is nominated a UC Davis Chancellor’s Fellow!

Jan

The Leite Lab is awarded the University Partnerships Investment Area Team, a collaboration with Dr. Kenny Chowdhary from Sandia National Laboratories. Together, we will implement machine learning methods to unravel degradation mechanisms in perovskite solar cells.

Dec

The group welcomes Mansha and Abby, new grad students!

Nov

The Leite Lab takes Fall MRS by storm! Ece, Richa, and Meghna present their results on solid-state batteries and halide perovskites for solar cells at the in-person meeting. Peifen and Margaret shared their findings on transient photonics and thermophotovoltaics during the online meeting. MSL was one of the meeting Chairs. Thanks MRS, for a fantastic meeting!

Oct

Leite presents invited talks at the AVS 67 and the XXXV Brazilian North and Northeast Regional Physics Meeting.

Sep

Leite presents a Colloquium at the Department of Physics, Federal University of Minas Gerais (Brazil). Thanks Carol, for the kind invitation. It was great seeing several old friends and colleagues!

Sep

John and Erica’s paper on perovskites’ dynamic response to humidity and light is highlighted on the front cover of Adv. Optical Materials.

Sep

Leite and Dr. Míguez (from the Institute of Materials Science of Seville) co-edit a special issue on “Photophysical Processes in Metal Halide Perovskites” for Adv. Optical Materials.

Aug

Leite becomes an SPIE Senior Member.

Aug

Meghna’s paper on machine learning for perovskite solar cells is now published on J. Phys. Chem. Letters. Good job Meghna!

Aug

Leite presents an invited talk on materials for thermophotovoltaics at SPIE.

Aug

Leite gives an invited talk on transient photonics at the RAPID Meeting.

Jul

John’s article on Emission Dynamics in Triple-Cation Halide Perovskites is published in Adv. Optical Materials. Well done John!

Jul

Leite presents an invited talk at META.