John Patrick Davis (JD) is a third-year Ph.D. student in Chemistry at UC Berkeley, advised by Professor Naomi Ginsberg. He earned an M.S. in Chemistry from the College of William and Mary, where he studied atmospheric reaction complexes using gas-phase laser spectroscopy, and a B.S. in Chemistry from Washington and Lee University, focusing on computational modeling and hyperspectral imaging.
JD’s doctoral research focuses on controlling the self-assembly of colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals. A spectroscopist by training, he leverages coherent X-ray scattering to capture microscopic fluctuations as components configure and rearrange, ultimately aiming to establish predictive frameworks for next-generation material design.
As a Kavli ENSI fellow, JD will focus on building a microscopic understanding of how components move and organize within solid-state electrolytes (SSEs) and nanocrystal assemblies. While these materials hold immense promise for next-generation energy storage and optoelectronics, researchers remain fundamentally limited by an inability to directly track their dynamics across vastly different scales of time and space. Building on his previous work, where he used advanced X-ray scattering techniques to reveal how nanocrystals navigate chaotic, disordered phases to form ordered crystal structures, JD plans to bridge the gap between atomic-scale motion and macroscopic performance. By combining these multiscale X-ray tracking methods with advanced computer modeling, he aims to uncover the fundamental design principles governing these systems, providing the predictive insights essential for engineering next-generation energy storage, conversion, and separation technologies.