Dr. Costel Constantin received his Ph.D. from Ohio University. He held a postdoctoral position at Carnegie Mellon University. He then held a position at Seton Hall University. Dr. Constantin joined the faculty at JMU in the Fall of 2010. Dr. Constantin's research focuses on the growth and characterization of rare earth oxides and nitride semiconductors.

Dr. Christopher Hughes received his Bachelors from Davidson College and his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina. He then held a postdoc position at North Carolina State coming to JMU in the Fall of 1997. He is currently the Unit Head of the Department of Physics & Astronomy. Dr. Hughes researches microfluidic devices and nanocomposite polymer surfaces.

Dr. Giovanna Scarel received her Ph.D. from the Department of Materials Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She then became a postdoctoral associate, and later, a research associate at the CNR-INFM-Materials and Devices for Microelectronics National Laboratory, Italy. More recently, she was a research associate at North Carolina State and then joined the faculty at JMU in the Fall of 2009. Dr. Scarel is interested in experimental and simulation work to investigate fundamental optical properties related to optical phonons in thin films. Dr. Scarel studies the response of oxide layers deposited with high uniformity using atomic layer deposition exposed to infrared radiation. The response is determined by surface longitudinal optical modes and transverse optical phonons.

Dr. Tina Rost received her Ph.D. from North Carolina State University. Dr. Rost's research interests are experimental in nature and include novel material exploration, complex oxide synthesis, X-ray based materials characterization techniques, crystallography, and extreme temperature processes. Learn more about Dr. Rost's lab by watching this brief video introduction to the RostLab.