Tom Pekin, PhD

For the last three years I've been working at Carl Zeiss SMT in Jena, Germany. I'm product owner for the PROVE microscope, which makes sure patterns that are used for making computer chips are in the correct location. It's been a steep learning curve from my previous position in R&D, but it has been very fulfilling to actually meet customers, understand how our tools are used in semiconductor production, and expand my skills in communication and stakeholder management. It's been very interesting to see the various parts of Zeiss work together as well, how sales leads to R&D developments, which get built by Operations, and installed and serviced by service. It's somewhat amazing that these machines get built at all :).

Prior to the switch to industry, I was a a postdoc at the Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, where I was a member of Christoph Koch’s Structure Research and Electron Microscopy group. There I worked on developing ptychographic methods using electron microscopy and high-end STEM/EELS on a Nion UltraSTEM. Previously, I did my PhD under Andrew Minor at UC Berkeley and the National Center for Electron Microscopy, where I focused on method development at the intersection of electron microscopy and structural materials science.

My research interests included electron ptychography and computational microscopy, as well as combining in situ electron microscopy methods with 4DSTEM techniques, with the hope of discovering new structure-property relationships that could then be exploited to improve material properties. I enjoyed working with diverse classes of materials, including catalytic materials, bulk metallic glasses, structural steels, and 2D materials like MoS2 and graphene. I also enjoyed teaching and incorporating Python into physics and materials science courses and research.

Outside of work I enjoy live music, staying active, whether that's running, yoga, biking, volleyball, etc. I also enjoy reading and DJing at home.