High School Interns

Shivali Radha

I am a high school intern at the lab and I am currently working with Natis Shafiq. I am doing research about the role of oxygen in the synthesis of graphene oxide-iron oxide nanoparticle composites for energy applications. I am currently a sophomore in the International Baccalaureate Program at Plano East Senior High School. I also enjoy playing violin for my school orchestra and taking part in volunteer work.

Ryan Harmon

I graduated from Plano West this year and I will attend UT Austin in the fall. I interned at NSERL this summer and the previous, working on a variety of different projects including the synthesis of graphene and high k-gate dielectric materials. This year I spent most of my time studying plasma depositions with Jinhee Kwon and Saeedeh Ravandi. Outside of the lab I enjoy playing guitar and reading.

Michele Myong

In Dr. Chabal’s lab, I work with Dr. Peter Thissen, Tatiana Peixoto, and Abraham Vega researching self-assembled monolayers on the silicon (111) surface. We use techniques such as FT-IR and XPS to understand how organic molecules, such as phosphonic acids, bind to the silicon surface. Understanding what promotes the stability of monolayers will allow further chemical functionalization of the Si surface for industrial applications in molecular electronics, (bio)sensors, protective coatings, adhesion, and separation. I am entering my senior year in the International Baccalaureate Programme at Plano East Senior High School. I enjoy playing the violin in the Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra and would like to study chemistry at university in order to pursue a career in the sciences.

Ethan Perez

My name is Ethan Perez. I am a high school intern at the lab. I work under Dr. Chabal and mainly with Cheng Gong (who is also under Dr. Chabal), with the spectrometer, and with equipment that measures the electrical resistance of graphene at different conditions and temperatures. I go to school at Cistercian Preparatory School, and I am going into 10th grade there. I want to be an engineer, but I am not sure what kind, so I am working in the lab to get more experience with different sciences. I was born in Dallas, Texas, but both of my parents are from India.