Group – Kempa Group

Principal Investigator

Professor Thomas (Tom) Kempa

Ph.D. in Chemistry: Harvard University, 2012

Bio: Thomas J. Kempa is an Assistant Professor of Chemistry and of Materials Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. After receiving a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Boston College in 2004, Tom was awarded a Marshall Scholarship and spent 2 years at Imperial College London. Returning to the United States, he began graduate studies under the direction of Prof. Charles Lieber at Harvard University and earned his PhD in 2012. Thereafter, Tom conducted postdoctoral studies in the laboratory of Prof. Daniel Nocera, first at MIT and then Harvard. Professor Kempa’s research group develops new methods to prepare and study low-dimensional (low-D) inorganic crystals from nanoparticles (0D) to few-atom thick sheets (2D) whose exceptional properties render them intriguing platforms for optoelectronic, energy conversion, and quantum science studies. Professor Kempa is the recipient of numerous awards including a DARPA Young Faculty Award, an NSF CAREER Award, a Toshiba Distinguished Young Investigator Award, a Dreyfus Foundation Fellowship in Environmental Chemistry, two Hopkins Discovery Awards, and a Hopkins Catalyst Award. He was also named by Matter as one of their 35 PIs under 35 for his leading contributions to materials science, and was recognized by J. Mater. Chem. A as their recipient of the Emerging Investigator Award.

All
Graduate Students
Undergraduate Students
Visiting Scholar
Alumni

Graduate Students

	Marta Sliwa B.Sc. in Chemistry: Boston University, 2017 msliwa1@jhu.edu Bio: A Dungeons & Dragons fanatic, Marta spends most of her time as the Dungeon Master or making pierogi for her fellow gamers.
	Dara Weiss B.Sc. in Chemistry: University of Chicago, 2018 dweiss16@jhu.edu Bio: Dara enjoys knitting, cooking vegan food, and obsessing over her cat, Edna Mode.
	Reynolds Dziobek-Garrett B.Sc. in Chemical Physics: University of Toronto, 2019 r.d.garrett@jhu.edu Bio: Reynolds, a proud DC native, enjoys cooking, basketball, and telling people that Reynolds is, in fact, not his last name.
	Zhe Zhang B.Sc. in Chemistry: Peking University, 2019 zhezhang@jhu.edu Bio: Zhe enjoys movies, tennis, music and dreams about having a cat.
	Ona Ambrozaite B.Sc. in Biochemistry: University of Vermont, 2020 oambroz1@jhu.edu Bio: Ona loves keeping a positive attitude and a smile, especially when doing CVD reactions! Besides designing low dimensional materials, she also paints with watercolor, using lots of bright colors.
	Yifei Zhu B.Sc. in Chemistry: Union College, 2020 yzhu107@jhu.edu Bio: Yifei during his leisure picks up all of his Vogues and Rolling Stones.
	Sachi Hilliard B.Sc. in Chemistry-Materials Science: University of California Los Angeles, 2020 shillia5@jhu.edu Bio: Sachi likes to spend her free time jogging, visiting museums, and perfecting her sourdough recipe.
	Kathryn Kingsbury B.Sc. in Chemistry: Fordham University, 2020 kkingsb5@jhu.edu Bio: Besides doing chemistry, Kathryn likes to spend her time making and eating soup. Although now that she thinks about it, a good part of doing chemistry is just making very elaborate soup.

Undergraduate Students

Shreya Sriramineni

B.A. in Physics: Johns Hopkins University, 2024 (expected)

ssriram5@jh.edu

Bio: In her free time, Shreya enjoys reading, listening to rock, and fueling her crippling addiction to minesweeper.

Visiting Scholar

Hiro Gangi

B.Sc. in Applied Physics: The University of Tokyo, 2013
M.Sc. in Applied Physics: The University of Tokyo, 2015
Collaborative Researcher from Toshiba Corporation Japan, 2017-Present

hiro1.gangi@toshiba.co.jp