PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Mikael P. Backlund
Assistant Professor of Chemistry
Member, Illinois Quantum Information Science and Technology Center (IQUIST)
Member, Center for Biophysics and Quantitative Biology (CBQB)
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
B.S., University of California, Berkeley, 2010
Ph.D., Stanford University, 2016
Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 2016-2020
mikaelb@illinois.edu
POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHERS
Mingcai Xie
B.S., Qinghai University, 2017
Ph.D., Nanjing University, 2022
mingcaix@illinois.edu
GRADUATE STUDENTS
David Durden
B.S., University of Georgia, 2019
ddurden2@illinois.edu
Cheyenne Mitchell
B.S., Bridgewater College, 2019
csm9@illinois.edu
Swastik Hegde
B.Tech., National Institute of Technology Karnataka Surthkal, 2016
M.S., Jawaharlal Nehru Center for Advanced Scientific Research, 2019
swastik2@illinois.edu
Lakshmy Priya Ajayakumar
B.S.-M.S., Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Thiruvananthapuram, 2020
lpa3@illinois.edu
Armine Dingilian
B. S., B. A., University of California, Berkeley, 2020
armined2@illinois.edu
UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS
Kyle Haggard
Chemical Engineering, Class of 2025
haggard6@illinois.edu
Rishi Sivakumar
Physics Engineering, Class of 2024
rishis4@illinois.edu
Zach Burke
Chemistry and Astrophysics, Class of 2024
zpburke2@illinois.edu
Alan Mu
Physics, Class of 2024
mu8@illinois.edu
FORMER MEMBERS
Gustavo Aldas – student at New Jersey Institute of Technology
Nabil Sikora – student at University of Illinois – Urbana-Champaign