Speaker:Jakoah Brgoch
Time: 16:00, Nov. 12th, 2019
Venue: Room 502, Building of State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices, Wushan Campus
Abstract: The development of new phosphors that are necessary for the next generation of high efficiency LED lighting requires a unique approach for materials discovery. Researchers often rely on chemical substitution or serendipity to identify new materials; however, this inevitably leads to slow, incremental advances in technology development. Our work has recently created a new approach that uses computational chemistry and machine learning to identify new materials guiding our experimental efforts. By predicting the vibrational properties and electronic structure of potential phosphors compounds, high-efficiency materials can be screened a priori ensuring the only best materials are experimentally explored. Following this methodology, our research has developed a number of materials ranging from borates to nitrides with high efficiency and thermal stability at elevated temperatures. Moreover, the complementary use of computation, machine learning, and synthesis provides the fundamental understanding of the composition, structure, and property relationship necessary for the continued advanced optical materials.
Biography:Jakoah Brgoch received his B.Sc. degree and Ph. D degree in Chemistry from Illinois State University, in 2008 and 2012, respectively. He was a postdoctoral research fellow at University of California, Santa Barbara from 2012 to 2014 in Professor Ram Seshadri’s group. In 2014, he joined the faculty at University of Houston as an Assistant Professor, where he is also currently Principle Investigator of Texas Center for Superconductivity at the University of Houston. Brgoch’s recent research interests focus on designing new phosphors using computational and experimental co-discovery. He has got the National Science Foundation CAREER Award with the research “Targeting novel phosphors for the next generation of solid-state white lighting”. In his previous research, he has got several awards including The Frank J. and Thoreen Beth Moore Fellowship in 2010, Alpha Sigma Chi Award for Graduate Research Excellence in 2012, UCSB–SSLEC Outstanding Postdoctoral Researcher Achievement Award in 2013, Robert A. Welch Professorship, University of Houston in 2014-2016, Young Chemist Award of the American Chemical Society ? Greater Houston Section in 2018 and Undergraduate Research Mentor Award at the University of Houston in 2019.