Johnathan D. Georgaras

Ph.D. candidate, Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University
Jornada Group · Advisor: Prof. Felipe H. da Jornada · Expected Ph.D.: March 2027

jdgeorga@stanford.edu CV (PDF) GitHub Google Scholar

Research

I study driven, non-equilibrium states in moiré and van der Waals interfaces, including interlayer excitons and phonon populations, using first-principles calculations and inverse modeling of ultrafast experiments. My work combines many-body perturbation theory (GW, Bethe–Salpeter equation), electron–phonon and phonon–phonon dynamics, and machine-learned interatomic potentials, carried out at scale on NERSC and TACC systems, in close collaboration with ultrafast electron diffraction and photoemission experiments.

Selected publications

* equal-contribution first author

• J. D. Georgaras*, A. Ramdas*, …, F. H. da Jornada, Accurate, transferable, and verifiable machine-learned interatomic potentials for layered materials, Nature Communications 17, 9291 (2026). doi
• J. D. Georgaras, E. Chen, …, F. H. da Jornada, Structural, electronic, and optical properties of moiré materials: a computational modeling handbook, Annual Review of Materials Research 56, 25–65 (2026). doi Led the article and designed the “Moiré Metro” overview figure.
• A. C. Johnson*, J. D. Georgaras*, …, F. H. da Jornada, D. Luo, F. Liu, Hidden phonon highways promote photoinduced interlayer energy transfer in twisted transition metal dichalcogenide heterostructures, Science Advances 10, eadj8819 (2024). doi
• A. Sood, J. B. Haber, …, J. D. Georgaras, …, A. Raja, Bidirectional phonon emission in two-dimensional heterostructures triggered by ultrafast charge transfer, Nature Nanotechnology 18, 29 (2023).
• O. Karni*, E. Barré*, V. Pareek*, J. D. Georgaras*, M. K. Man*, C. Sahoo*, …, K. M. Dani, Structure of the moiré exciton captured by imaging its electron and hole, Nature 603, 247 (2022).
• T. S. Arnaud, …, J. D. Georgaras, …, J. D. Caldwell, Tailoring phonon-driven responses in α-MoO₃ through isotopic enrichment, Advanced Materials 38, e73629 (2026). doi

Selected presentations

• Sustaining nonequilibrium zone-boundary phonons in twisted MoSe₂/WSe₂, SPIE Optics + Photonics, San Diego, CA (2026).
• Long-lived non-equilibrium phonons in twisted van der Waals heterostructures, APS Global Physics Summit, Denver, CO (2026).
• Accurate, transferable, and verifiable machine-learned interatomic potentials for twisted layered materials, ONR MURI Grant Review Year 3, poster, Nashville, TN (2026).
• Computationally trackable and transferable validation of MLIPs for moiré materials through topologically exhaustive 1D moiré paths, APS Global Physics Summit, Anaheim, CA (2025).
• Anharmonic enhancement of interfacial phonon–phonon coupling in twisted TMD bilayers, APS March Meeting, Minneapolis, MN (2024).
• Dynamics, hybridization, and thermalization of phonons in optically excited twisted TMD bilayers, APS March Meeting, Las Vegas, NV (2023).
• Spectroscopic signatures of moiré-confined excitons in bilayer TMDCs from first principles, APS March Meeting, Chicago, IL (2022).

Honors

• Robert A. Huggins Award, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University (2026) The department's highest student academic award, recognizing a significant contribution to materials research in the previous 18 months; nominated by advisors and collaborators and selected by a faculty committee.
• NSERC Postgraduate Scholarship – Doctoral (2021–2025) Federal doctoral fellowship from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada for Canadian students in the natural sciences.

Education

• Ph.D., Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University (expected 2027)
• M.S., Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University (2022); M.S., Applied Physics, Stanford University (2021)
• B.S., Physics, University of Waterloo (2019)