People

Team Lead

Dr. Francisca Cavallo

Principal Investigator

Dr. Francesca Cavallo

Director, Center for High Technology Materials
Associate Professor, University of New Mexico
Email: fcavallo@unm.edu
LinkedIn: LinkedIn Profile
Ph.D., Electrical Engineering & Information Technology, Chemnitz University of Technology, Germany (2009)
B.S./M.S., Electronic Engineering, University of Salerno, Italy (2004)

Dr. Francesca Cavallo brings over twenty years of research experience in the fields of sheet science and technology, nano-origami, flexible electronics, and the integration of highly mismatched materials. Her work focuses on the modeling and characterization of electrical transport, surface and interface science, strain engineering, and bio-device integration.

She currently serves as Associate Director of the Center for High Technology Materials and is an Associate Professor at the University of New Mexico. Prior to this, she was a scientist in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Dr. Cavallo earned her Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Information Technology from the Technical University of Chemnitz in Germany. During her doctoral studies, she conducted research at the Von Klitzing Department of the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research in Stuttgart and at the Institute for Integrative Nanosciences in Dresden.

 

DR. FRANCESCA CAVALLO

GROUP LEADER

Research Scientist & Post Docs

Emma Renteria

Position: Research Scientist 3
Research Project: Multifunctional 2D materials that integrate electromagnetic interference shielding and infrared detection functionalities.
Current research interests: Synthesis, processing, and characterization of inorganic nanosheets for radiofrequency applications. 
 

DR. EMMA RENTERIA

RESEARCH SCIENTIST
Divya J. Prakash

Current position: Research Assistance (PhD Candidate)

Research Project: Transport properties of Graphene grown on Germanium (investigate lateral charge transport in polycrystalline and single-crystalline graphene/Ge via magneto-transport measurements and maximum entropy mobility spectrum analysis.)

DIVYA J. PRAKASH

POST DOCTRAL ASSOCIATE

Students

Saad Mohammad Bhuiya

Current position: Research Assistant, Center for High Technology Materials (CHTM)

Current Research Project: Synthesis of Screw Dislocations in High-Order Topological Insulators (HOTI)

My research focuses on the MBE growth and characterization of BiSb thin films on GaAs substrates, with the goal of studying screw dislocations in high-order topological insulator materials. I analyze the structural, surface, and compositional properties of the grown films. In addition, I am working on isolating the grown BiSb layers from GaAs and transferring them onto other semiconductor substrates where BiSb is not traditionally grown directly, enabling broader integration with different material platforms.

SAAD MOHAMMAD BHUIYA

PhD STUDENT
Ruhin Chowdhury

 

Current position: Research Assistance (PhD Candidate)

Research Project: Transport properties of Graphene grown on Germanium (investigate lateral charge transport in polycrystalline and single-crystalline graphene/Ge via magneto-transport measurements and maximum entropy mobility spectrum analysis.)

RUHIN CHOWDHURY

PhD sTUDENT
Jordan Neely

Position: Research Assistant

Project: Spintronic devices based on line defects in widely used semiconductors. So far I've been focused on making devices to measure the spin scattering lifetimes for screw dislocations in different semiconductors.

JORDAN NEELY

PhD sTUDENT
AKM Sharoar Choyon

Current position: Research Assistant, Center for High Technology Materials (CHTM)

Current Research Project: Refractory Metal Helices as Slow-Wave Structures for mm-through-THz Traveling Wave Tube Amplifiers

AKM SHAROAR JAHAN CHOYON 

PHD STUDENT

 

Current position: 

Current Research Project: 

NOELLE KANDIGIAN

BS STUDENT

 

Current position: 

Research Project: 

PETER JONAS ELA

BS STUDENT

Position:

Project: 

ZACHARY HANDOKLOW

BS STUDENT
Colton Purdy


Current position: Undergraduate Student Researcher

Current Research Project: Colton is an undergraduate student researcher, pursuing an Electrical Engineering and a Physics degree at the University of New Mexico. He has been working in the Cavallo group since August 2025 and is currently working on the synthesis of thin film silicon carbine nanomembranes. He is also in the Cavallo group's senior design group for 2025-2026, working on developing a spinFET device utilizing screw dislocations.
He also enjoys indie music, movie theatres, and hiking with his fiancee.

COLTON PURDY

BS STUDENT

Alumni

EMMA  RENTERIA

RESEARCH SCIENTIST 3, CHTM

MENGISTIE L. DEBASU

RESEARCH SCIENTIST III, TOKYO ELECTRON US

ARNAB K. MAJEE

YIELD DEVELOPMENT ENGINEER, INTEL CORP.

VIJAY S. MANGU

PROCESS INTEGRATION ENGINEER, SOLIDIGM

CARLY  STRICKLAND

OPERATIONS ENGINEER, NATIONAL NUCLEAR SECURITY ADMINISTRATION (NNSA)

HASSAN DIBAJI

ASSOCIATE RESEARCHER, UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA

ANEESHA KONDAPI

PROCESS INTEGRATION DEVELOPMENT ENGINER, INTEL CORP.

NADEEM ABDUL 

TECHNICAL LEAD, KROGER TECHNOLOGY & DIGITAL

FAZLI AKRAM

Materials Technologist/Microscopist, New Mexico Institute of Mining & Technology

Additional Mentoring Activities

Since 2014, Dr. Cavallo has mentored 35+ undergraduate and high-school students working on a wide range of research projects. Approximately 94% of these students belong to underrepresented groups in science and engineering.