Samuel Shian
School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

Samuel Shian is a post-doctoral research associate in David Clarke's group at the Harvard John A Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. He earned a bachelor degree in metallurgy from Bandung Institute of Technology in Indonesia, a master degree in materials science from the Ohio State University, and a doctoral degree in materials science and engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology. At Georgia Tech, Samuel focused on processing and characterization of functional ceramics derived from silica bio-templates, such as diatoms, and studied biomineralization processes for synthesizing functional oxides directly using biomolecules. At Harvard, in addition to developing functional ceramics for next-generation thermal barrier coating materials, he is also working on soft electroactive materials for energy conversion and novel optical devices. His research interests include bioinspired materials and devices, high-temperature structural ceramics, smart and multifunctional materials, and energy harvesting devices. He actively participates in MRSEC IRG3 collaboration with Zhigang Suo and Katia Bertoldi and has mentored several undergraduate students as part of the MRSEC's REU program. In addition to basic research at Harvard, he is currently working part-time at Solchroma Technologies Inc., a SBIR/NSF-funded startup company that is developing a full-color passive display based on the technology that he co-invented with Roger Diebold and David Clarke.