Zhou Lab People

Kade Johnson

I finished undergrad at Saint Louis University in 2022, majoring in Engineering Physics and minoring in Engineering Mathematics. I am currently working on plasmonic materials under high pressures and carrying out Raman measurements on the semiconductors after shock compressions. I enjoy swimming, biking, and listening to music.

Christian Verry

I graduated in 2022 from UTSA with a BS in physics. I am currently a graduate student working on "Nano-3D Printing of Photopolymers with Ultra-High Resolution." I'm currently trying to teach myself painting and drawing in my free time. Also, in my free time I enjoy spending time with my family and catching up on sleep.

Eric Austin

I am an undergraduate student in the new and innovative experimental plasmonics team in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at UTSA. I am currently pursuing my degree in physics, where my passion for learning led me to join this dynamic research group. My primary role currently is to design and align optics, and synthesize and characterize plasmonic nanoparticles. Outside of academia I work as a biochemist at a local yeast cultures laboratory. I use the practical knowledge developed from my experience at that position to support our group by synthesizing nanoparticles in the wet lab. Moving forward, I hope to be accepted into the graduate physics program here at UTSA so I may continue research with this team to earn my PhD.

Kenneth Mikolaichik

I am an undergraduate student in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at UTSA. I am working in the lab on the high-pressure plasmonics project and the shock-compression of semiconductor materials. I have been building optics for the high-pressure plasmonics platform in the lab and collecting Raman and fluorescence spectroscopies on semiconductor and dye molecules. I am a veteran of the US Navy where I was trained and worked as an aircraft mechanic for 5 years. I specialized in hydraulics, system troubleshooting, and composite material repair. After leaving the military I worked for AECOM and later for Northrup Grumman here in San Antonio. Over the last two years I constructed a working four-legged robotic spider about the size of a grapefruit complete with "OpenCV" machine vision and 'Tensorflow' machine learning. I am in the process of training it to be semi-autonomous with the ultimate goal of having it troubleshoot and repair various systems. Visit this webpage for more details. When I am not deep in a book or wrenching on things, I enjoy the great outdoors, attending festivals, and visiting with friends.