This list includes Cornell alumni only, from 1998-present. If you would like to have your employment information updated, please contact Prof. Baker.

Postdoctoral Scholars

Markus Chmielus (Cornell University) 2010-present
Project Titles: “The b to a phase transformation and resulting microstructure in Ta thin films” and “Texture transformations in thin metal films”

Catherine Oertel (Cornell University) 2004-2006 (NSF Discovery Fellow)
Project Title: “Structure and Corrosion of Pb-Sn Alloys in Historical Organ Pipes”
Current Employment: Assistant Professor, Chemisty, Oberlin College

Mengzhi “Margie” Pang (Cornell University) 2002-2005
Project Title: “Subcritical De-adhesion of Thin Films from Substrates”
Current Employment: Intel Corp, Chandler AZ

Thorsten Staedler (Cornell University) 2001-2003
Project Titles: “Nanoindentation Studies of Time-Dependent Deformation in Glass,” “Nanoscale Mechanical Properties of Trabecular Bone,” and “Development of Dynamic Nanocontact Methods and Study of Thin Polymer Photoresist Structures”
Current Employment: Research Associate, University of Siegen, Germany

PhD Students

NOTE: * indicates jointly advised students who did the mechanical testing portion of their PhD work in the Baker group.

Lisa Lamberson (Cornell University) PhD 2016
Thesis Title: “Influence of Atomic Structure on Plastic Deformation in Tectosilicate Calcium-Aluminosilicate, Magnesium-Aluminosilicate, and Calcium Galliosilicate Glasses”
Current Employment: Corning Incorporated, Corning, New York.

* Miki E. Kunitake (Cornell University) PhD 2015
Thesis Title: “The Effects of Structure and Composition on the Hardness of Biogenic and Synthetic Single Crystal Calcite” mechanical properties of polymer reinforced calcite single crystals
Current Employment: Corning Incorporated, Corning, New York.

* Grace Kim (Cornell University) PhD (2013)
Thesis Title: “The Effects of Mineralization and Crystallinity on the Mechanical Behavior of Bone”

* Jayme C. Burket (Cornell University) PhD (2012)
Thesis Title: “Alterations in Tissue Composition and Nanomechanical Properties with Ageing, Osteoporosis, and Treatment”
Current Employment: Clinical Research Fellow Epidemiology and Biostatistics Core at Hospital for Special Surgery, New York

Aaron M. Vodnick (Cornell University) PhD 2010
Thesis Title: “Stress partitioning in FCC thin metal films with mixed texture”
Current Employment: New Product Development Leader - North America, Cortland Limited

Ray S. Fertig III (Cornell University) PhD 2010
Thesis Title: “Dislocations and Strength in Thin Films: Simulations and Modeling”
Current Employment: Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering, University of Wyoming

* Eve Donnelly (Cornell University), PhD 2007
Thesis Title: “Effects of collagen and mineral content and organization on the nanomechanical properties of bone tissue”
Current Employment: Assistant Professor, Materials Science and Engineering, Cornell University

Robert A. Knepper (Cornell University), PhD 2007
Thesis Title: “Microstructure and Mechanical Behavior of Thin Ta Films during Thermal Cycling”
Current Employment: Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM

David E. Nowak (Cornell University), PhD 2006
Thesis Title: “Measurements and Analysis of Inhomogeneous Stresses Caused by Elastic and Plastic Anisotropy in Thin Metal Films” Current Employment: Intel Corp.

Prita Pant (Cornell University), PhD 2004
Thesis Title: “Dislocation Interactions in Thin Films”
Current Employment: Professor, Metallurgical Engineering and Materials Science Dept. Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay,

Jonathan B. Shu (Cornell University), PhD 2003
Thesis Title: “Plastic Deformation and Thermomechanical Behavior of Passivated Copper Thin Films on Si Substrates”
Current Employment: Shared Facility Manager, Center for Nanoscale Systems, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.

MS and MEng Students

Ari Kestenbaum (Cornell University) MS 2016
Thesis Title: “Dislocation Modeling of Orientation gradients in Phase-Transformed Tantalum Thin Films”
Current Employment: Epic Systems Corp., Madison, Wisconsin

Matthew D. Trosa (Cornell University) MEng 2016
Project Title: Impact of fragility and glass composition on the brittle-to-ductile transition in silicate glasses using the double torsion test
Current Employment: Corning Incorporated, Corning, New York

Rekha V. King (Cornell University) MS 2015
Thesis Title: “The Effect of Temperature on the Texture Transformation in Silver Thin Films”
Current Employment: UTC Aerospace Systems

Shelby L. Johnson (Cornell University) MS 2015
Thesis Title: “Investigation of Parallel Planar Defects and Texture Transformation in Electron Beam Evaporated Silver Thin Films”
Current Employment:

Luiz Ferri (Cornell University) MEng 2014
Project Title: “High temperature double torsion test to determine the ductile to brittle transition temperature in calcium alumino-silicate glasses.”
Current Employment: Corning Incorporated, Corning, New York

Shangchen Han (Cornell University), MS 2013
Thesis Title: “The Influence of Sputter Gas Pressure on the Hardness and Modulus of Tantalum Thin Films”
Current Employment: Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh

Jonathan E. Hughes (Cornell University) MS, MS&E, August 2003
Thesis Title: “Investigation of the Mechanical Properties of Organically Modified Ceramic Materials: A Nanoindentation Study,
Current Employment: Graduate Student in Transportation Technology and Policy at UC-Davis

Howard Champoux (Cornell University) MS, MS&E 2000
Thesis Title: “Thermomechanical Behavior of Thin Metal Films on Polyimide Substrates
Current Employment: Research Electro-Optics (thin film engineer), Boulder, CO

Xiaohu Wang (Cornell University) MS 2000
Thesis Title: “Bilayer Modeling and Measurements of Adhesion of Copper Thin Films to Glass”
Current Employment: Hanna Strategies LLC, (CAD/CAM/CAE software development), Atlanta, GA

Cornell University Undergraduate Researchers

Kyle Visser Fall 2011-Spring 2013, “Stresses and microstructure in Ag thin films: Synchrotron XRD, FIB and EBSD”

Marissa Linne, Spring 2011-Summer 2013, Senior Thesis (Award Winner) “EBSD studies of Tantalum thin films”

James Gippetti, Fall 2010-Spring 2012, “Deposition, structure and properties of thin AlN films”, “Mechanical properties of textured metal plates”, Senior Thesis: “Computational Modelling of Vacancies in the Beta Phase of Tantalum Thin films.”

Stansilav Dorokhov, Spring 2010-Spring 2012, Senior Thesis: “Texture transformation kinetics in thin Ag films”

Lauren Mangano, Spring 2009-Spring 2011, Senior Thesis (Award winner): “A Comparative Study the Fracture Toughness of Geologic Calcite and Biogenic Calcite Using Nanoindentation”

Sandra Quah, Spring 2010-Spring 2011, “Deposition, structure and properties of thin AlN films”

Justin Deng Spring 2010 “Deposition, structure and properties of thin AlN films”

Kevin Golovin, Spring-Summer 2010, “Mechanical properties of textured metal plates”

Ryan Serell, Summer 2010, “Mechanical properties of textured metal plates”

John Peloquin, Fall 2008-Spring 2009, Senior Thesis (2009) “Mechanical Properties of calcite/agarose Singe Crystal Compostes: a Model System for Biogenic Materials”

Victor Chin, Spring 2006-Spring 2007, Senior Thesis: “Computer Simulations of Dislocation Configurations and Stress Distributions in Thin Films”

Max Aubain, Fall 2005-Spring 2007, Senior Thesis: “The Beta-Alpha Phase Transformation in Ta Thin Films: Electron Backscatter Diffraction and Differential Scanning Calorimetry Analyses”

Jeremy Yim, Fall 2004-Spring 2006, “X-ray diffractometer for thin film strain measurements”

Anna Domask, Spring 2004-Spring 2006, B.S. MS&E 2006 Senior Thesis Poster Award 2006, Senior Thesis: “Adhesion of thin metal films to ceramic substrates”

Joseph Lemberg, Fall 2004-Spring 2005, B.S. MS&E 2005 Senior Thesis: “Microstructure, composition, and mechanical property variations within spin-cast Al-Si ribbons”

Blake Stevens, Spring 2003-Spring 2005, B.S. MS&E 2005, Senior Thesis: “X-ray Analysis of Texture in Thin Metal Films”

Katherine Jackson, Spring 2003-Spring 2005,  B.S. MS&E 2005, Senior Thesis: “Transmission Electron Microscope and Electron Backscattered Diffraction Analysis of Ta Thin Films”<

Michael Miller, Spring 2002-Spring 2004, B.S. MS&E 2004, CCMR-REU summer 2002, Project, Senior Thesis: “Effect of Collagen Crosslinking on Nanoscale Mechanical Properties of Woven and Lamellar Trabecular Bone”

Aaron Kueck, Summer 2002-Spring 2004, B.S. MS&E 2004, Senior Thesis: “Microstructural Characterization and Calculation of Cooling rates for Spin-CastAl-Si Alloys”

Michael Frascarelli, Fall 2001-Spring 2002, BA 2004, Project title: “Microstructure of spin cast Al and Al-Si tapes”

Weichun “Chau-Jean” Lin, Spring 1999-Sumer 2002, CCMR-REU summer 2000, B.S. MS&E 2002, Cornell Presidential Research Scholar, BP-Amoco Undergraduate Research Prize, Senior Thesis “The effect of titanium adhesion layers on the microstructure of Ag thin films”

Krishanu Saha, Spring 1998-Summer 2001, B.S. Chem. E. 2001, Churchill Scholar, Fullbright Fellowship, MRS Undergraduate Materials Research Initiative grant, BP-Amoco prize, Project title: “Deposition, microstructure, and mechanical behavior of thin fcc metal films”
Ming Lu, CCMR-REU summer 2001, Project title: “Dislocation dynamics simulations in thin films”

Christopher Valentine Fall 1998, B.S. ORIE 2001, Project title: “TEM grain size analysis of thin films”

Brian Kennedy Spring 1999, B.S. MS&E 2001, Project title: “RBS investigations of thin Cu films”

Ronald Paryl, Fall 1998-Spring 1999, B.S. MS&E 2000, Project title: “A new program in C++ to simulate the stress-temperature behavior of thin films based on bulk deformation mechanisms”

Elias Schilowitz, Fall 2000-Spring 2001, B.S. MS&E 2002, Project title: “Design, construction and testing of a novel substrate curvature stress measurement device”

Susan B. Clyburn Spring 1998-Spring 1999, summer 1998 CCMR-REU, B.S. MS&E 1999, Senior Thesis: “Effect of Film Thickness and Oxygen Content on the Thermomechanical Behavior of Cu Thin Films”

Edward Kaste, Fall 1999, B.S. MS&E 1999, Project title: “ X-ray measurements of texture in Cu thin films”

Ryan Halter summer 1998 CCMR-REU (Penn. State Univ.) Project title: “Texture analyses of thin metal films on substrates”