Rachel S. Goldman

This information is accurate as of the fellowship year indicated for each fellow.

Rachel S. Goldman’s research interests are in the atomic-scale design of electronic materials, with a focus on the mechanisms of strain relaxation, alloy formation, and diffusion and correlations between microstructure and electronic, magnetic, and optical properties of semiconductor films, nanostructures, and heterostructures. For example, she recently achieved the first direct atom-level measurements of In-Ga interdiffusion lengths. She is currently an associate professor of materials science and engineering and of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of Michigan.

Goldman’s Radcliffe fellowship project involves a novel approach to semiconductor nanopatterning: directed matrix seeding, which consists of seeding nanostructures using a focused-ion beam to selectively damage nanometer-scale regions, followed by additional ion implantation and annealing. She will collaborate with several Harvard colleagues in the synthesis, characterization, and device development of these nanocomposites, which are expected to facilitate the construction of optoelectronic, transport, and storage devices.

Goldman received her bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of Michigan, her master’s degree in applied physics from Cornell University, and her PhD in materials science from the University of California at San Diego. Following her PhD, she was a postdoctoral fellow in physics at Carnegie Mellon University. In 1997, she joined the University of Michigan as the Dow Corning Assistant Professor. Goldman received a Materials Research Society Graduate Student Award in 1994, a National Science Foundation CAREER Award in 1998, the AVS Science & Technology Society’s Peter Mark Memorial Award in 2002, and the University of Michigan Ted Kennedy Family Team Award in 2004.