Congratulations to You Zhou, Assistant Professor, Department of Materials Science& Engineering, University of Maryland, a recipient of the  National Science Foundation (NSF) Career Award.

You Zhou received his Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Harvard University and was a postdoctoral scholar at Harvard before joining the University of Maryland.

His proposal, entitled "CAREER: Crystalizing electrons in coupled atomically thin semiconductors,” aims to study how electrons in a semiconductor can self-arrange into a periodic pattern, a crystal, and how such a crystal melts as a result of both thermal and quantum effects. The project utilizes semiconductors that are only a few atoms thick, so-called two-dimensional materials, to realize electron crystals and explores methods to probe and control the crystallization of electrons. The controlled melting of electron crystals due to quantum effects could form a novel platform for realizing quantum electronic and optoelectronic devices.

To learn more about the Zhou research group, please follow this link.