About the Lab
The Wegener Lab explores how light can be used to design, fabricate, and understand novel materials and structures with properties beyond those found in nature. A central focus of the lab is 3D laser micro- and nanoprinting, including multi-photon and two-step absorption techniques, holographic beam shaping, and multi-focus parallelization, enabling the fabrication of complex three-dimensional structures with nanometer-scale precision and high throughput.
Building on these fabrication capabilities, the lab investigates metamaterials, metasurfaces, and nanoarchitected materials with tailored mechanical, optical, electrical, and thermal properties. Research topics range from ultralight yet extremely strong carbon nanolattices and nonlocal electrical or thermal conduction, to optical microcavities and micro-optical elements for spectroscopy and sensing. The group also integrates computational approaches such as Bayesian optimization, machine learning, and deep learning to accelerate material design, optimize structures, and enable in-situ monitoring during fabrication.
Applications of the lab’s research span photonics, microelectronics, medicine and pharmacy (e.g., inhalable drug carriers), agriculture (pathogen detection), and lightweight structural materials for energy-efficient technologies.
The Wegener Lab is an excellent fit for students with strong interests in physics, optics, materials science, or engineering. Ideal candidates enjoy interdisciplinary research, combining experiments with theory, simulation, and data-driven methods, and are motivated to push the limits of nanoscale fabrication and functional materials.