To solve some of the world’s top energy needs, Bolin Liao is working at the front line of efforts to better understand the behaviors and interactions of the most fundamental energy carriers in materials, such as electrons, phonons and photons.

“By looking at particles on the atomic level in the smallest time and length scales, we can determine how particles collide, interact and transport heat and electrical current,” said Liao, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at UC Santa Barbara. “Understanding the smallest details of energy transport and conversion processes will lead to more efficient and cost-effective energy technologies.”

Liao’s experimental and computational approach to creating more efficient energy devices continues to receive significant support and accolades. Most recently, the National Science Foundation (NSF) bestowed upon him its most prestigious honor for junior faculty, the Early Career Development Award. The recognition includes a five-year, $500,000 federal grant for research and educational activities.

To view the complete story, please read A Research Hat-Trick by Andrew Masuda published in The Current. 

Funding from the U.S. Army Research Office Young Investigator Program will allow Liao's lab to use the state-of-the-art scanning ultrafast electron microscope to study hot carrier dynamics in two-dimensional materlas.