People
Principal Investigator

Xi Ling
Associate Professor
Xi joined the Department of Chemistry and Division of Materials Science & Engineering at Boston University as an assistant professor in September 2016. Before that, she was a postdoc in Prof. Mildred Dresselhaus and Prof. Jing Kong’s group in Research Laboratory of Electronics at MIT, where she learned the CVD synthesis of 2D materials and their heterostructures, and materials characterization using spectroscopic techniques . She obtained her Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry in Prof. Jin Zhang and Prof. Zhongfan Liu’s group at Peking University in China, where she discovered the graphene-enhanced Raman scattering (GERS) effect and investigated this effect systematically.
Ph.D. Students
Hongze Gao (Rex)
M.S., Boston University
B.S., The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Email: rexgao96@bu.edu
y.o.e. 2020
Research interest: Material Characterization and Device Development

Zifan Wang
B.S., San Yat-sen University, China
Email: wangzf27@bu.edu
y.o.e. 2021
Research interest: Material Synthesis and Characterization

Jing Tang
B.S., Nanjing University, China
Email: jing1998@bu.edu
y.o.e. 2022
Research interest: Multiferroic 2D Materials, CVT, Spectroscopy characterization of 2D Materials

Ruiqi Lu
M.S.,
B.S., BUCT, China
Email: luruiqi@bu.edu
y.o.e. 2023
Research interest: Two-dimensional materials and their applications in sensing technologies

Grant McNamara
B.S., Boston College, USA
Email: grantmcn@bu.edu
y.o.e. 2024
Research Interest: Optical & electronic spectroscopies with applied field modulation of vdW multiferroics. Polarization angle dependent Raman spectroscopy analysis and curve fitting.

Master Students
Joey Scimeca
Email: jscimeca@bu.edu
y.o.e 2025
Research interest: Janus structure synthesis
Undergraduate Students
Ngoc Khanh Dang
Email: ivyngoc@bu.edu
y.o.e 2025
Research interest: TMBs synthesis
Kelly Shashaty
Email: shashaty@bu.edu
y.o.e 2025
Research interest: MOCVD
Alumni
Visiting Professor/Researcher
Mariana Ramos (Visiting professor from UFMG in Brazil, 9/2022-6/2023): UFMG, Brazil
Nannan Mao (visiting researcher, 2017-2023): Professor at Nanjing University, China
Iraj S Amiri (Visiting researcher, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Malaysia, 2017-2018)
Postdoctoral Fellow
Xingzhi Wang (Postdoctoral fellow, Boston University, 4/2017-10/2020): Professor at Xiamen University
Ph.D. Alumni
Qishuo Tan (PhD student, Boston University, 9/2019-3/2025): Engineer at Monolithic Power Systems, Inc.
Lu Ping (PhD student, Boston University, 9/2019-6/2024): Applications Scientist at Thermo Fisher Scientific
Jun Cao (PhD student, Boston University, 9/2017-1/2024): Lam Research
Hikari Kitadai (PhD student, Boston University, 9/2016-5/2023): Sales Engineer at Bruker
Weijun Luo (PhD student, Boston University, 9/2017-3/2023): Chemistry subject expert at HireArt Inc
Tianshu Li (PhD student, Boston University, 12/2016-8/2022): Process Engineer at Applied Materials Inc.
Visiting Ph.D. Students
Xiaoyuan Ma (Visiting PhD student from Tianjing Univeristy, 2019-2020):
Meng Yuan (Visiting Ph.D. student, China Agricultural University, China, 11.2019-05.2020)
Ran Li (Visiting PhD student from Donghua Univeristy, 2018-2020): Postdoc at Nanyang Technology University in Singapore
M.S. Alumni
Haochi Wang (Master Student at BU, 1/2022-12/2022): Research Assistant at Brown University, PhD student at Stony Brook University
Xinyi Wang (Master Student at BU, 2020-2022)
Haoqi Ren (Master student, Boston University, 2/2020-5/2021)
Cathlene Del Rosario (Graduate student, Boston University, 03. 2018-08. 2020)
Yueyin Wang (Master Student, Boston University, 04. 2019-08. 2020)
Undergraduate Alumni
Gillian Minarik (Undergraduate student, Boston University, 10/2019-5/2023): PhD student at Columbia University
Cameron Crane (PAL, Boston University, 9/2017-5/2021): Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Kevin Wang (Undergraduate, Boston University, 2017-5/2021)
Alfred Wong (undergraduate, BU, 2017-2019)
Minxue Kan (undergraduate, BU, 2017-2018)
Undergraduate Visitor
Jingtian Yang (undergraduate, University of Science and Technology of China, 2019 Summer)
Liangyang Liu (undergraduate, Tsinghua Univeristy, 2018 Summer): PhD student at Tsinghua University
High School Summer Program
Victoria Garity ( High school student, GROW Program, 2023 Summer)
Ryan Nguyen ( High school student, RISE Program, 2023 Summer)
Ben Auer (REU student, University of Kansas, 2023 Summer)
Kaitlyn Fitzpatrick (High school student, GROW program, 6/2022-8/2022)
Ayoub Ellouzi (Undergraduate student Bunker Hill Community College, REU program, 2021 Summer)
Diana DiTullio (High school student, GROW Program, 2019 Summer)
Aakash Mehta (High school student, RISE Program, 2019 Summer)
Helen Xiao (High school student, Summer Intern, 2019 Summer): Harvard University
Petya Todorova (High school student, GROW Program, 2018 Summer): Northeastern University
Maia Alberts (High school student, Summer Intern, 2018 Summer): Harvard University