“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.” – Steve Jobs
We seek highly motivated student researchers (graduate and undergraduate), postdocs, and visiting scholars. If you want to join us, please find the email address in the CONNECT section and send us the information detailed in the following.
For prospective graduate students, you can pursue your degree in the Department of Mechanical Engineering (MEEN), Material Science and Engineering (MSEN), or Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECEN), where Prof. Lan has affiliated appointments. We would like you to have solid scientific strength in one of the areas: mechanics, materials, physics, and chemistry at small scales (atomic, nano, micro, and molecular). Experience with optics and photonics in terms of experiments, nano-fabrication, and analytical/numerical simulations is a plus. For international students, please ensure you have the GRE/TOEFL/IELTS scores ready and fulfill the admission requirements when reaching out. Before emailing Prof. Lan your CV, transcripts, and writing samples (if any), you are also strongly encouraged to browse the RESEARCH tab to find the research topic(s) you are interested in and read one or two of our papers accordingly.
For prospective undergraduates, we would love to hear from you as long as you are interested in our research. You don’t have to have any experience, but the only requirement is that you are willing to dedicate some of your time to cutting-edge scientific research.
For prospective postdoctoral fellows, your Ph.D. research needs to be closely, not just tangentially, related to the areas described in the RESEARCH tab. If so, please email Prof. Lan directly with your CV, a description of your research interests, and contact information for three references. If you have extra information, such as independent funding experience, please also put it in the email.
For prospective interns or visiting scholars, we would like you to maximize the length of stay because achieving results in a short time frame (less than four months) is very challenging.
Prof. Lan will attempt to respond to all inquiries, but unfortunately, the volume of emails sometimes makes that impossible. With that said, if you can follow the instructions above, you will have the priority to receive a thoughtful response.