Faculty/Researcher List

John Cumings

Assistant Professor
UMD - Faculty

Research

Materials, Devices, Characterization

The primary goal of my research is to advance the current understanding of the dynamic properties of nanoscale systems. The future of many fields of the physical and biological sciences lies in nanotechnology, and as the size of functional devices progresses ever smaller, there will inevitably be problems that can only be addressed by direct real-time observations. A number of research groups are focusing on using scanned probe techniques, such as scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and atomic-force microscopy (AFM), to explore dynamic properties at the nanoscale, but these slow imaging techniques are poor at capturing these effects. My research goes beyond this approach by using real-time imaging techniques, such as transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to explore fundamental physics on small length scales.

Dr. Cumings earned his BA in physics from Boston University in 1997, and his Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley in 2002. He held a postdoctoral research position at Stanford for two years before becoming an Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland in 2005. His research focuses on understanding the dynamic properties of nanoscale systems through transmission electron microscopy and other imaging techniques. He was the first to fabricate a nanoscale bearing from a multiwall carbon nanotube and has made many other contributions to nanoscience. Among other awards, he received an IBM Research Fellowship (2001-2002) and The MSGS Award for Outstanding Advising in Materials Science and Engineering (2007). He has more than 30 technical publications and holds two patents.