Gregory Doerk
Materials Scientist, Electronic Nanomaterials, Center for Functional Nanomaterials

Brookhaven National Laboratory
Center for Functional Nanomaterials
Bldg. 735
P.O. Box 5000
Upton, NY 11973-5000
(631) 344-7370
gdoerk@bnl.gov
Pronouns: he, him, his
Expertise | Research | Education | Appointments | Publications | Highlights | Awards
Expertise
- Self-assembly
- Block copolymers
- Nanofabrication
- Reactive ion etching
- Combinatorial experimentation
Research Activities
Greg’s research aims to direct the self-assembly of polymers and use them to synthesize new materials with tailored nano-architectures for optical, chemical, and energy applications. Special focus is given to developing combinatorial, high-throughput, and adaptive experimental methods that will help integrate self-assembly into scalable and cost-effective processes for materials manufacturing.
Synergistic Activities
2023 Co-organizer, Workshop 5: Fluid Transport in Nanomaterials for Sustainable Energy and Water Production, NSLS-II, CFN & LBMS User Meeting, Brookhaven National Laboratory.
2023 Organizer, Physical Phenomena at Polymer/2D Material Interfaces Focus Session, American Physical Society March Meeting.
2021 Organizer, Self-Assembly in Polymer Blends and Nanocomposites Focus Session, American Physical Society March Meeting.
2019 Co-organizer, Workshop 9: Accelerating Research on Two-Dimensional Material Heterostructures for Quantum Information Sciences, NSLS-II & CFN Joint User Meeting, Brookhaven National Laboratory.
2018 Co-organizer, Block Copolymer Thin Films Integrated with New Material Platforms Focus Session, American Physical Society March Meeting.
Education
Case Western Reserve University B.S. 2005 Chemical Engineering
University of California, Berkeley Ph.D. 2010 Chemical Engineering
Professional Appointments
Research and Professional Experience
- 2020 – present Scientist, Center for Functional Nanomaterials, Brookhaven National Laboratory
- 2018 – 2020 Associate Scientist, Center for Functional Nanomaterials, Brookhaven National Laboratory
- 2015 – 2018 Assistant Scientist, Center for Functional Nanomaterials, Brookhaven National Laboratory
- 2013 – 2015 Research Staff Member, HGST, a Western Digital Company
- 2010 – 2013 Postdoctoral Researcher, Lithography Materials, IBM Research, Almaden
Selected Publications
- Doerk GS, Stein A, Bae S, et al (2023) Autonomous discovery of emergent morphologies in directed self-assembly of block copolymer blends. Science Advances 9:. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.add3687
- Kulkarni AA, Doerk GS (2022) Hierarchical, Self-Assembled Metasurfaces via Exposure-Controlled Reflow of Block Copolymer-Derived Nanopatterns. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 14:27466–27475. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.2c05911
- Doerk GS, Li R, Fukuto M, Yager KG (2020) Wet Brush Homopolymers as "Smart Solvents" for Rapid, Large Period Block Copolymer Thin Film Self-Assembly. Macromolecules 53:1098–1113. doi: 10.1021/acs.macromol.9b02296
- Toth K, Osuji CO, Yager KG, Doerk GS (2020) Electrospray deposition tool: Creating compositionally gradient libraries of nanomaterials. Review of Scientific Instruments 91:. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5129625
- Subramanian A, Doerk G, Kisslinger K, Yi DH, Grubbs RB, Nam C-Y (2019) Three-dimensional electroactive ZnO nanomesh directly derived from hierarchically self-assembled block copolymer thin films. Nanoscale 11:9533–9546. doi: 10.1039/c9nr00206e
- Doerk GS, Yager KG (2017) Rapid Ordering in "Wet Brush" Block Copolymer/Homopolymer Ternary Blends. ACS Nano 11:12326–12336. doi: 10.1021/acsnano.7b06154
- Rahman A, Majewski PW, Doerk G, Black CT, Yager KG (2016) Non-native three-dimensional block copolymer morphologies. Nature Communications. doi: 10.1038/ncomms13988
- Stein A, Wright G, Yager KG, et al (2016) Selective directed self-assembly of coexisting morphologies using block copolymer blends. Nature Communications 7:. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms12366
- Doerk GS, Cheng JY, Singh G, et al (2014) Enabling complex nanoscale pattern customization using directed self-assembly. Nature Communications 5:. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms6805
- Doerk GS, Carraro C, Maboudian R (2010) Single Nanowire Thermal Conductivity Measurements by Raman Thermography. ACS Nano 4:4908–4914. https://doi.org/10.1021/nn1012429
Research Highlights
AI Discovers New Nanostructures Using X-rays
Unlocking a Diversity of Self-Assembled Nanostructures by Layering
High-throughput Maps of Polymer Self-Assembly
Catching Light with 3D Hybrid Nanostructures
Nanodiamonds Shine with Single Photons
Catching Light with Zinc Oxide Nanomesh Sensors
Artificial Intelligence for Smarter & Faster Research
Small Polymers Can Have a Big Impact on Self-Assembly
Mixing the Right Blend Speeds Up Polymer Self-Assembly
Tricking Self-Assembly into Creating New Shapes
Press:
AI Discovers New Nanostructures
Automatically Steering Experiments Toward Scientific Discovery
Exploring Blended Materials Along Compositional Gradients
Building a Printing Press for New Quantum Materials
Accelerating the Self-Assembly of Nanoscale Patterns for Next-Generation Materials
Smarter Self-assembly Opens New Pathways for Nanotechnology
Awards & Recognition
2021 DOE Early Career Research Program award recipient

Brookhaven National Laboratory
Center for Functional Nanomaterials
Bldg. 735
P.O. Box 5000
Upton, NY 11973-5000
(631) 344-7370
gdoerk@bnl.gov