Tisdale Lab @ MIT

tisdale@mit.edu | ChemE Faculty Page | CV | video profile
Office: 66-458
Phone: 617.253.4975 | Fax: 617.258.5766

Will Tisdale is Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at MIT, where he has been teaching and leading a research team since 2012. His research program is focused on the discovery of hybrid organic-inorganic nanomaterials capable of transporting energy in new ways, and on the use and development of ultrafast laser spectroscopy methods and advanced optical microscopy techniques for probing dynamics at the nanoscale.

Will’s contributions to research have been recognized by the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, the Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, the DOE Early Career Award, the NSF CAREER Award, the AIChE NSEF Young Investigator Award, and a 3M Non-Tenured Faculty Award.

For his dedication to undergraduate teaching Will has received MIT’s highest honor, the MacVicar Fellowship, as well as the student-selected Baker Award, the School of Engineering’s Amare Bose Award, and he is a 7-time recipient of the C. Michael Mohr Undergraduate Teaching Award, which is voted annually by the Chemical Engineering undergraduate students at MIT.

Will graduated magna cum laude from the University of Delaware in 2005, earning an Honors B.S. in Chemical Engineering, with Distinction, and minoring in Economics. He earned a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering at the University of Minnesota in 2010, then studied as a postdoctoral associate in the Research Laboratory of Electronics at MIT before joining the faculty in Chemical Engineering in 2012.

Will and his wife, Alison – who works in Cambridge area biotech – are the proud parents of two amazing girls.

ssaris@mit.edu
Office: 66-216
Phone: 617.324.9637

Seryio joined the group in January 2023 as a Postdoctoral Fellow. Originally from Turkey, he received a PhD in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering from EPFL, Switzerland in the lab of Prof. Raffaella Buonsanti in 2020. At EPFL, he worked on developing strategies to utilize perovskite nanocrystals in photo-induced chemical transformations. Seryio then expanded his background with an initial postdoc experience at LMU, Munich in the group of Prof. Emiliano Cortes, investigating dynamic processes in 2D materials with scattering microscopy tools. As a recipient of an SNSF Postdoctoral Fellowship, his current focus in the Tisdale lab is on studying exciton dynamics and diffusion in hybrid nanosystems via transient spectroscopy and microscopy techniques.

ekprice@mit.edu
Office: 66-216
Phone: 617.324.9637

Eliza joined the group in August 2021 as a PhD student in Chemical Engineering. She is originally from Denton, TX and graduated from Texas A&M University in 2020 with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and a minor in Materials Science and Engineering. Eliza worked in Professor Micah Green’s lab for three years while studying at A&M, investigating scalable functionalization methods of Graphene Oxide. She also worked as a co-op at Marathon Petroleum Corporation and Baker Engineering and Risk Consultants. Eliza is co-advised by Professor James Swan in Chemical Engineering and is a recipient of a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. Her current work focuses on the self-assembly of colloidal quantum dot superlattices.

tsheeh@mit.edu
Office: 66-216
Phone: 617.324.9637

Thomas joined the group in January 2022. He grew up in Northern Virginia, and he graduated from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2020 with a B.S. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and a minor in Mathematics. At UIUC, he worked on the development of LCMS-based high-throughput screening methods for catalysts in organic synthesis under Prof. David Sarlah and on the selective electrochemical removal of heavy metal ions from water under Prof. Xiao Su. In the Tisdale lab, he is studying the diffusion of excitons in perovskite quantum dots using transient spectroscopy techniques.

nlbrown@mit.edu
Office: 66-216
Phone: 617.324.9637

Niamh joined the group in November 2021 as a PhD student in chemistry. She graduated summa cum laude from University of Colorado, Boulder in 2021 with a B.A. in chemistry and a minor in mathematics. Niamh worked in Professor Michael Marshak’s lab synthesizing and characterizing novel heavy metal complexes for use in organic light emitting diodes. She also worked in Professor Gordana Dukovic’s lab on characterizing trap states in cadmium sulfide quantum dots. Niamh is co-advised by Professor Moungi Bawendi in chemistry and is interested in using ultrafast spectroscopic techniques to explore exciton dynamics in colloidal semiconductor nanomaterials. She is the recipient of the Robert T. Haslam Presidential Fellowship.

mchatt@mit.edu
Office: 66-216
Phone: 617.324.9637

Maya joined the group in November 2022 as a PhD student in Physical Chemistry. She graduated magna cum laude from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) in May 2022 with a B.S. in Chemistry. At UIUC, she worked on plasmon-assisted electrocatalytic CO­₂ reduction with bimetallic gold-copper nanoparticles under Prof. Prashant Jain. In the Tisdale lab, Maya synthesizes lead halide perovskite quantum dots and 2D crystals. She studies exciton transfer in these materials using ultrafast spectroscopy.

nsamulew@mit.edu
Office: 66-216
Phone: 617.324.9637

Nicholas joined the group in November 2022 as a PhD student in Chemical Engineering. He graduated magna cum laude from the University of Delaware with an Honors B.ChE. in Chemical Engineering. At UD, Nick worked under Dr. Dion Vlachos on upcycling herbaceous biomass into electrochemical catalysts and breaking down lignin into monomers. He also worked as a co-op at DuPont Water Solutions R&D on method development for HPLC purification of oligonucleotides for use as gene therapeutics. As a senior, he led UD’s RAPID ChemE Cube team to a national victory during its inaugural competition, which involved modularizing in-home water purification. In the Tisdale Group, Nick’s work is in the synthesis, characterization, and application of metal-organic chalcogenolates. He is a recipient of a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.

jkwag@mit.edu
Office: 66-216
Phone: 617.324.9637

Jimin joined the group in November 2023 as a PhD student in Chemical Engineering. She received her B.S. and M.S. in Chemical and Biological Engineering from Seoul National University. She worked on investigation of structural degradation of fuel cell catalysts via transmission electron microscopy in Professor Jungwon Park’s lab. In the Tisdale lab, she focuses on neutron and X-ray scattering investigation of nanocrystal self-assembly.

jgriff13@mit.edu
Office: 66-216
Phone: 617.324.9637

Justin joined the group in November 2023 as a PhD student in Chemical Engineering. He graduated summa cum laude from Northwestern University in June 2023 with a B.S. in Chemical and Biological Engineering and a minor in Computer Science. At Northwestern, Justin worked on developing high-throughput mechanical testing methods for bulk soft materials in Prof. Muzhou Wang’s lab. In the Tisdale lab, he is investigating charge and ion transport in halide perovskites for applications in solar photovoltaics. Justin is a recipient of a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.

fionawsh@mit.edu
Office: 66-216
Phone: 617.324.9637

Fiona joined the group in February 2025 as a sophomore undergraduate student studying Chemical Engineering. At MIT, she is involved with the MIT Energy Conference as a panel director, the Energy & Climate Launchpad program, and MIT Consulting Group. She strives to advance sustainable practices and clean energy while also advocating energy policy. In the Tisdale lab, Fiona works with Maya to synthesize 2D layered lead halide perovskite crystals.