Our Group

AllPrincipal InvestigatorResearch ScientistDoctoral Student

Dr. Jason D. Azoulay

Principal Investigator

Dr. Jason Azoulay is an Associate Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Materials Science and Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is the Georgia Research Alliance Vasser-Woolley Distinguished Investigator in Optoelectronics and co-director of the Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics. Prior to joining GT, he was an Associate Professor of Polymer Science and Engineering at The University of Southern Mississippi. He received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of California –Santa Barbara and performed post-doctoral studies at Sandia National Laboratories. Prof. Azoulay’s research group unites strong synthetic foundations with physics, materials science, and engineering to synthesize and apply next-generation functional materials. Research efforts within the group encompass homogeneous catalysis applied to polymer synthesis; electronic, photonic, magnetic, and quantum materials; device fabrication and engineering; chemical sensing in complex aqueous environments for environmental monitoring; and the synthesis, application, and engineering of high-performance polymers across multiple technology platforms. Azoulay has directed large interdisciplinary and center-level efforts in conjugated polymers, optoelectronics, and chemical sensing. He has also received numerous awards and honors, including the 2017 Nokia-Bell Labs Prize and Department of Energy Early Career Research Program Award.

Dr. Paramasivam Mahalingam

Research Scientist

Param received his Ph.D. in Materials Chemistry from the CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology in 2014, under the supervision of Dr. K.  Bhanuprakash and Dr. V. Jayathirtha Rao.  His Ph.D. research focused on the molecular design and synthesis of novel organic materials for solar cell applications.  He is now working on the development of shortwave infrared (SWIR) polymers for organic photodiodes since joining the Azoulay group in July 2019.

Chih-Ting Liu

Chemistry and Biochemistry, PhD Candidate

Chih-Ting graduated from the Department of Applied Chemistry at National Chiao Tung University in 2015 with a B.S. in Applied Chemistry and in 2017 with an M.S. in Applied Chemistry. His current research focus is on open-shell polymer based intrinsic conductors and their development, processing, and related device engineering and photoconductors in semiconductors.

Matthew Kaminow

Materials Science and Engineering, PhD Student

Matthew Kaminow went to the University of Maryland – College Park and graduated in 2021 with a Bachelor’s of Engineering in Materials Science and Engineering. As an undergraduate, he focused on quantum materials and first principles calculations. Now, he works on researching quantum spin dynamics in conjugated polymers.

Tanya Balandin

Materials Science and Engineering, PhD Student

Tanya graduated with her B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from University of California – Los Angeles (UCLA) in 2022. Her undergraduate research focused on sol gel synthesis of pseudo-solid electrolytes for future energy storage applications, and she learned a variety of materials characterization techniques. Tanya also worked part-time for a high-tech startup company based at the California Nano-Systems Institute (CNSI), where she developed new synthesis methods for proton exchange membranes for hydrogen fuel cells. Now, she is focused on magnetometry characterization of conjugated polymers.

Tyler Bills

Chemistry and Biochemistry, PhD Student

Tyler graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2022 with a B.S. in Chemistry where his research activities centered around using nonlinear spectroscopies to elucidate electronic defects in hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites. In his continuing doctoral work at Tech, Tyler has joined the Azoulay Group to synthesize and photophysically characterize a novel range of infrared-active conjugated polymers. He hopes to optimize figures of merit relevant to detector performance while extending photoresponse further into the IR.

Alexander Bushnell

Chemistry and Biochemistry, PhD Student
Alex graduated from Case Western Reserve University in 2023 with a B.S. in Chemistry. His undergraduate research focused on the synthesis and functionalization of conjugated polymers for semiconductors with improved mechanical properties. His current research further investigates conjugated polymers for photodetectors in the IR region.

Oscar Eraso Toro

Materials Science and Engineering, PhD Student

Oscar earned his B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Nariño in Colombia. During his undergraduate studies, he conducted research under Dr. Luis Echegoyen’s mentorship, concentrating on synthesizing nanomaterials for renewable energy applications, including perovskite solar cells and hydrogen evolution reactions. Oscar is currently dedicated to exploring open-shell polymer-based intrinsic conductors, focusing on their development, processing, and application in device engineering.

Sanyukta Datta Gupta

Sanyukta Datta Gupta

Chemistry and Biochemistry, PhD Student

Thomas Spradley

Materials Science and Engineering, PhD Student

Co-Advised with Prof. Natalie Stingelin

Vipul Singh

Vipul Singh

Chemistry and Biochemistry, PhD Student