People
Lab Director
Thomas Beechem leads the Specere Laboratory at Purdue, which focuses on leveraging nanoscale phonon-physics to create thermal, spectroscopic (i.e., sensing), and infrared solutions.
Thomas Beechem is an Associate Professor in the School of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University. Before joining Purdue in August of 2021, Thomas was a scientist at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, NM, for 12 years where he held an affiliate appointment with the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies (CINT). During his time at Sandia, he was part of teams receiving two R&D 100 Awards, received a 2015 Defense Program Award of Excellence and was named one of Sandia’s “Up and Coming Innovators” in 2016. He has authored more than 100 archival publications, holds 7 patents, and had his work selected as the featured “cover article” on 5 separate occasions by 6 different periodicals. A fellow of ASME, Thomas served as an associate editor for its Journal of Heat Transfer for six years. At Purdue, he was awarded the Robert W. Fox Outstanding Instructor Award in 2023 from Purdue’s School of Mechanical Engineering and Purdue’s College of Engineering Faculty Excellence Award in Early Career Research in 2024.
ResearchGate | Google Scholar | Purdue Faculty Page | LinkedIn
Graduate Researchers
fernando vega
Project: Electron-Based Spectroscopic Ellipsometric Imaging of Defects (Sandia Academic Alliance LDRD)
Research Interests: Optical property characterization, Oxide materials, Assistive Technology
Google Scholar ⇢ Linkedin ⇢
Walter smith
Project: Three-Dimensional Ferroelectric Microelectronics (3dFEM EFRC⇢)
Research Interests: Ferroelectric materials, Raman and photoluminescence spectroscopy
Google Scholar ⇢ Linkedin ⇢
Shuhang Lyu
Project: Mechanics of Nanoscale Thru Silicon Vias
Research Interests: Microfabrication, Semiconductor packaging
Google Scholar ⇢ Linkedin ⇢
abdulaziz alkandari
Project: Anharmonic Lattice Dynamics in Thermal Transport and Spectroscopy (Co-Advised with Xiulin Ruan)
Research Interests: Nanoscale Thermal Transport, 1st Principles Computational Simulation, Phonon Physics
Google Scholar ⇢ Linkedin ⇢
Edward walker
Project: Spectroscopic Nanoscale Thermometry
Research Interests: Microelectronics Cooling, Hardware Characterization, Thermal Physics
Sahej Sharma
Project: Advanced Spectroscopy of Semiconductor Materials
Research Interests: Spectroscopy, 2D Electronics, Thermal Management
Linkedin ⇢
Undergraduate Researchers
Bradon Timms
Project: Raman Shifts of Ferroelectric AlBN
Research Interests: Raman spectroscopy, Optical Properties, Semiconductors
Bach son nguyen
Project: Electro-optical Defect Characterization for Ferroelectric Memory
Research Interests: Semiconductors, Raman spectroscopy, Optical property characterization
Rana Yuvraj
Project: Calibration of Optical Monochromator
Research Interests: Raman spectroscopy, Photoluminescence spectroscopy, Thermal Physics
Specere Alumni
Fahad alshehri
Undergraduate Researcher, 2024
Current Position:
Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN
Jessica Jittu
Undergraduate Researcher, 2024
Current Position:
Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN
Epiphany white
Undergraduate Researcher, 2024
Current Position:
Dow Chemical, Freeport, TX
Arihant Kaul
Undergraduate Researcher, 2021-2024
Current Position:
Thin Films Manufacturing Engineer
Lockheed Martin Corporation, Orlando, FL
Jacob Minyard
Masters Student, 2022-2024
Current Position:
Lecturer
St. Mary’s College, St. Marys, KS
Ananya srivastava
Masters Student, 2024
Current Position:
Silicon Design Engineer
Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Santa Clara, CA
Zak Piontkowski
Post-Doctoral Researcher, 2020-2021
Current Position:
Senior Member of Technical Staff, Applied Optical and Plasma Sciences Department
Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM
Amun Jarzembski
Post-Doctoral Researcher, 2019-2021
Current Position:
Senior Member of Technical Staff, Applied Optical and Plasma Sciences Department
Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM
Elbara Ziade
Specere Mentee, 2017-2021
Current Position:
Thermal Design
Apple Inc., Seattle, WA
Christopher Saltonstall
Post-Doctoral Researcher, 2016-2018
Current Position:
Senior Member of Technical Staff
Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM
Michael Goldflam
Post-Doctoral Researcher, 2015-2017
Current Position:
Principal Scientist
STR, San Diego, CA
Colin Landon
Post-Doctoral Researcher, 2014-2015
Current Position:
Nanoscale Thermal Modeling Scientist
Intel Corporation, Hillsboro, OR
Ryan Shaffer
Graduate Student Intern, 2013-2015
Current Position:
Applied Science Manager, Quantum Computing
Amazon Web Services, New York, NY
Luke Yates
Undergraduate Student Intern, 2011-2013
Current Position:
Senior Member of Technical Staff
Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM
