Aldo Chavez | Student Spotlight
Aldo Chavez
PhD Candidate
Materials Science and Engineering
"This year, along with my friend Sydney Fultz-Waters, I’m serving as co-president of Stanford Materials Research Society (MRS), our department’s voluntary student organization.
In MRS we run a number of functions for the department community: we plan and host social events, we organize town halls to maintain open communication with department staff and faculty about student concerns, we help run the admitted PhD students’ visit weekend, we organize practice sessions for students preparing for their qualifying exams, we plan professional development and career planning activities for students, and we put on the annual university-wide Art of Science exhibition (this year will be 15 years in a row!). Being a part of MRS has been one of the most fulfilling aspects of my time at Stanford, and helped me develop some great friendships. Now in my third year, I’m grateful to still be surrounded by such a fun and dedicated group of volunteers. I’m grateful, too, for our administrative staff who are enormously kind, helpful, and committed to supporting the department community.
In my research, I study structure-property relationships of atomically thin materials. With scanning tunneling microscopy, we can measure their optical properties with atomic-scale resolution – like how single-atom defects in a crystal emit light. In the lab, experiments are always throwing unexpected challenges at you, so I’m constantly testing my ability to learn and problem-solve, but also relying on my advisor and labmates as sources of knowledge, feedback, and support. The collaborative teamwork in our lab keeps me excited and eager to come into the lab each day. I love the work that I do here and the community that I get to be a part of while doing it."
