Nadya Mason
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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Primary Section: 13, Physics Secondary Section: 33, Applied Physical Sciences Membership Type:
Member
(elected 2021)
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Biosketch
Nadya Mason is an experimental physicist who works at the intersection of complex materials, superconductivity, and nanotechnology. She is particularly recognized for her work elucidating the electronic properties of low-dimensional correlated materials, such as hybrid superconducting devices containing metal, graphene, or topological insulators. Mason received her bachelor’s degree in physics from Harvard University, her doctorate in physics from Stanford University, and engaged in postdoctoral research as a Junior Fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows. She has been a general Councilor of the American Physical Society (APS), a Chair of the APS Committee on Minorities, and currently serves as founding Director of the Illinois Materials Research Science and Engineering Center. Beyond teaching and research, Mason works to improve science communication and is also committed to increasing diversity in the physical sciences. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences.
Research Interests
Nadya Mason’s research focuses on electron transport in nanoscale and mesoscopic systems, such as graphene, nanostructured superconductors, and topological insulators. These systems often exhibit new properties due to confinement and strong electron correlations. Her group’s experiments often focus on “model,” hybrid systems, where unique materials (such as graphene) are connected to materials having electron correlations (such as superconductors), and formed into carefully designed devices using nanofabrication techniques. This enables the creation of new types of materials having controllable (and potentially useful) properties. Measurements are performed at low-temperatures, to explore quantum effects. The improved understanding of the nature of electronic transport gained via these experiments has significant impact on topics ranging from high-temperature superconductivity to quantum computing. Examples of results from Mason’s lab include demonstrations of coherence in topological surface states, reconstruction of electron energies in strained graphene, and the first evidence of superconducting bound states in graphene-superconductor hybrids.
