For full CV (updated in June 2022) see CV_PaulHanakata
Current Position
- Postdoctoral Fellow working with David R. Nelson, Physics Department Harvard University
Research Interests
Hard and Soft Condensed Matter Physics
- Programmable metmaterials
- Nanomachines
- 2D materials beyond graphene
- Nonlinear mechanics in thermalized 2D membrane
- Kirigami and mechanical metamaterials
Machine Learning
- Generative Model for Inverse Design
- Machine learning for phase transition and bifurcation problem
- Evolutionary Search
Education
Ph.D., Physics (2019), Boston University, USA
- Dissertation: Studies of 2D Materials Beyond Graphene: From First-Principles to Machine Learning Approaches
- First advisor: David K. Campbell
- Second advisor: Harold S. Park
B.A. in Physics (with high honors) and Mathematics (2014), Wesleyan University, USA
- Thesis: Cooperative Dynamics in Supported Polymer Films
- Advisor: Francis W. Starr
Awards
- Gertrude and Maurice Goldhaber Prize in recognition of “outstanding achievement by a first-year graduate student”, Department of Physics, Boston University (2015).
- Leroy Apker Award Finalist, The highest prize o ered in the United States for an undergraduate thesis in physics, American Physical Society (2014).
- Bertman Prize Wesleyan Physics Department’s highest recognition of an undergraduate student majoring in physics, Wesleyan University (2014).
- Phi Beta Kappa Wesleyan University (2014)
- Johnston Prize, Karl Van Dyke Prize Wesleyan University (2010, 2012)
- Bronze Medal International Physics Olympiad (2009)
- Silver Mdeal Asian Physics Olympiad (2009)
Grants
- Hariri Incubation Grant, Boston University (2018-2019)
- Materials Science and Engineering Innovation Grant, Boston University (2016)
Fellowships/Scholarships
- Hariri Graduate Fellow, “awarded to outstanding PhD students who pursue computational and data-driven research at Boston University” , Boston University (2018-2019).
- Materials Science and Engineering Innovation Grant, Boston University (2016)
- Freeman Scholarship, Wesleyan University (2010-2014).
Services
Referee for Nature Computational Materials, Physical Review Letters, PNAS, ACS Nano, Extreme Mechanics Letters, Physical Review B, Advanced Nanoscales, Nature Scientific Reports, and The Journal of Chemical Physics.