David joined Columbia after an adventurous academic journey through ETH Zurich, Hitachi Energy, Brown University, and the beamlines of Brookhaven National Lab — where he spent more time aligning laserlight and building nanoparticles than seeing sunlight. Trained as both a chemist and an engineer, he enjoys creating things that glow, resonate, and behave exactly as expected — just never twice in a row. His research focuses on plasmonic nanomaterials, self-assembly, automation technology, spectroscopy, and the fine art of convincing gold nanoparticles to cooperate.
Outside research, David is often found puzzling is way out of escape rooms, playing soccer, lifting things (sometimes at the gym, sometimes in the lab), debating ancient philosophy and psychological conundrums over too much coffee, or trying to convince people that X=K when talking about LaTeX.