Gregory Doerk

Preferred Gender Pronouns (PGPs): he, him, his

Expertise | Research | Education | Appointments | Publications | Highlights | Awards

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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

CFN Scientist Spotlight: Gregory Doerk Guides the Self-Assembly of Materials to Make Diverse Nanoscale Patterns

Smarter Self-assembly Opens New Pathways for Nanotechnology

Awards & Recognition

2021 DOE Early Career Research Program award recipient