Download full CV PDF

Bibliometrics

h-index: 39    i10-index: 62    Citations: 9227

Academic Career

2019 – present
Assistant Professor, University of Antwerp, Belgium
ERC Principle Investigator of the project High Definition Electron Microscopy

2017 – 2019
Scientist, Max-Planck-Institute for Solid State Research, Stuttgart, Germany

2015 – 2017
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow, Faculty of Physics, University of Vienna, Austria

2014 – 2015
Postdoctoral Scientist, Faculty of Physics, University of Vienna, Austria

2012 – 2014
Staff Scientist, SuperSTEM Laboratory, UK
Postdoctoral Scientist, Department of Materials, University of Oxford, UK

Education

2006 – 2012
Ph.D. in physics
Vanderbilt University and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA
Understanding Materials through Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy & Density Functional Theory
Advisor: Prof. Sokrates T. Pantelides

2002 – 2006
B.A. in physics
Reed College, USA
Thesis: Three-state L-configuration electromagnetically induced transparency
Advisor: Prof. Danielle A. Braje

2004 – 2005
Undergraduate Research Internships at ORNL 
The Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy Group, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA
Probing the spatial resolution of electron energy loss spectroscopy in complex oxides
Advisor: Dr. Maria Varela

Grants

2022
Universiteit Antwerpen Bijzonder Onderzoeksfonds (210,000 Euros)

2021
Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek Fundamental Research Project (461,000 Euros)

2020
Universiteit Antwerpen Bijzonder Onderzoeksfonds (210,000 Euros)

2019
ERC Starting grant (1,500,000 Euros)

2015
EC Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship (166,157 Euros)

Teaching

Since 2023

Microscopy and spectroscopy of nanosystems Masters’ course in electron microscopy

Since 2020

Advanced Electron Microscopy Masters’ course in electron microscopy

Projects in Microscopy and Spectroscopy Masters’ research projects in electron microscopy and spectroscopy

Awards

2018
The Albert Crewe Award, Major award of the Microscopy Society of America, their highest for early career scientists working in the physical sciences. Press release.

2015
European Microscopy Society Outstanding Paper Award in the Materials Sciences category for Imaging screw dislocations at atomic resolution by aberration-corrected electron optical sectioning, Nature Communications 6, 7266 (2015)

2014
Birks Award for Best Contributed Paper from Microscopy & Microanalysis 2013 for Depth Sensitive Atomic Resolution Spectroscopy and Imaging of Highly Strained YSZ/STO

Microscopy & Microanalysis Postdoctoral Award for Optical Sectioning with Atomic Resolution Spectroscopy

Second Place, 2014 Microscience and Microscopy Congress Poster Competition for Maximum efficiency phase contrast imaging in scanning transmission electron microscopy

2012
Best Oral Presentation, YUCOMAT conference for White Light Emission from Fluctuating Nanoclusters

2010
International Federation of Societies for Microscopy Scholarship for Strain-Enhanced Ionic Conductivity

Microscopy Society of America, Presidential Scholar Award for Strain-Enhanced Ionic Conductivity

2005
Microscopy and Microanalysis Graduate Student Poster Competition Second Place, for Spatial Resolution of Spectroscopic Imaging in Complex Oxides

Microscopy Society of America Undergraduate Research Scholarship for Atomic Scale Studies of Manganite Grain Boundaries with Colossal Magnetoresistance

Recognitions

2022
Applied Physics Letters Editor’s Pick
C. Gao et al. “Overcoming contrast reversals in focused probe ptychography of thick materials: An optimal pipeline for efficiently determining local atomic structure in materials science”. Applied Physics Letters, 121, 081906 (2022).

2017
Nature Nanotechnology Research Highlight
R. Mirzayev et al. “Buckyball sandwiches”. Science Advances 3, e1700176 (2017).

2014
APS Physics Featured in Physics
& IEEE Spectrum News Release
C. Li et al. “Grain-Boundary-Enhanced Carrier Collection in CdTe Solar Cells”. Physical Review Letters 112, 15 (2014).

Nature Materials News & Views
K. R. Paton et al. “Scalable production of large quantities of defect-free few-layer graphene by shear exfoliation in liquids”. Nature Materials 13, (2014), p. 624.

Peer Review

Nature (Nature Group)
Scicence Advances (American Association for the Advancement of Science)
Microscopy and Microanalysis (Cambridge University Press)
Physical Review Research (American Physical Society)
Microscopy (Oxford University Press)
Nature Communications (Nature Group)
Journal of Microscopy (The Royal Microscopical Society)
Nanoletters (American Chemical Society Publications)
Ultramicroscopy (Elsevier)

Journal Covers

Ten Selected Publications

C. Hofer and T. J. Pennycook. “Reliable phase quantification in focused probe electron ptychography of thin materials”. Ultramicroscopy, 254 (2023), p. 113829.
Citations: 3
Introducing a superior method of quantifying the true atomic phases in ptychography and CoM based imaging.

C. Gao, C. Hofer, D. Jannis, A. Béché, J. Verbeeck, and T. J. Pennycook. “Overcoming contrast reversals in focused probe ptychography of thick materials: An optimal pipeline for efficiently determining local atomic structure in materials science”. Applied Physics Letters, 121 (2022), p. 081906.
Citations: 6
Simultaneous ptychography complementing the Z-contrast workflow with no loss of speed, revealing light atoms and providing significantly greater dose efficiency than other STEM methods, including iCoM.

H. S. Wang, L. Chen, K. Elibol, L. He, H. Wang, C. Chen, C. Jiang, C. Li, T. Wu, C. X. Cong, T. J. Pennycook, G. Argentero, D. Zhang, K. Watanabe, T. Taniguchi, W. Wei, Q. Yuan, J. C. Meyer and X. Xie. “Towards Chirality Control of Graphene Nanoribbons Embedded in Hexagonal Boron Nitride”. Nature Materials 20 (2021), p. 202.
Citations: 83
Edge-specific fabrication of graphene nanoribbons embedded in h-BN.

D. Jannis, C. Hofer, C. Gao, X. Xie, A. Béché, T. J. Pennycook and J. Verbeeck. “Event Driven 4D STEM Acquisition With a Timepix3 Detector: Microsecond Dwell Time and Faster Scans for High Precision and Low Dose applications”. Ultramicroscopy 233 (2021), p. 113423.
Citations: 41
First 4D STEM unhindered by the speed of the camera.

T. J. Pennycook, G. T. Martinez, P. D. Nellist, J. C. Meyer “High Dose Efficiency Atomic Resolution Imaging via Electron Ptychography”. Ultramicroscopy 196 (2019), p. 131.
Citations: 45
Superior low dose performance over conventional HRTEM with ptychography.

T. J. Pennycook, H. Yang, L. Jones, A. R. Lupini, M. F. Murfitt and P. D. Nellist, “Efficient Phase Contrast Imaging in STEM Using a Pixelated Detector. Part 1: Experimental Demonstration at Atomic Resolution”. Ultramicroscopy 151, (2015), p. 160.
Citations: 244
Direct ptychography method for maximum efficiency imaging in STEM.

K. R. Paton, E. Varrla, C. Backes, R. J. Smith, U. Khan, A. O’Neill, C. Boland, M. Lotya, O. M. Istrate, P. King, T. Higgins, S. Barwich, P. May, P. Puczkarski, I. Ahmed, M. Moebius, H. Pettersson, E. Long, J. Coelho, S. E. O’Brien, E. K. McGuire, B. M. Sanchez, G. S. Duesberg, N. McEvoy, T. J. Pennycook, C. Downing, A. Crossley, V. Nicolosi and J. N. Coleman. “Scalable Production of Large Quantities of Defect-Free Few-Layer Graphene by Shear Exfoliation in Liquids”. Nature Materials 13, (2014), p. 624.
Citations: 2466
Simple scalable production of large amounts of graphene.

C. Li, Y. Wu, J. Poplawsky, T. J. Pennycook, N. Paudel, W. Yin, S. J. Haigh, M. P. Oxley, A. R. Lupini, M. Al-Jassim, S. J. Pennycook and Y. Yan. “Grain-Boundary-Enhanced Carrier Collection in CdTe Solar Cells”. Physical Review Letters 112 (2014), p. 156103.
Citations: 327
Physics behind the efficiency of CdTe solar cells.

O. L. Krivanek, M. F. Chisholm, V. Nicolosi, T. J. Pennycook, G. J. Corbin, N. Dellby, M. F. Murfitt, C. S. Own, Z. S. Szilagyi, M. P. Oxley, S. T. Pantelides and S. J. Pennycook. “Atom-by-Atom Structural and Chemical Analysis by Annular Dark-Field Electron Microscopy”. Nature 464 (2010), p. 571.
Citations: 1399
Locating and identifying individual atoms in 2D materials.

T. J. Pennycook, M. J. Beck, K. Varga, M. Varela, S. J. Pennycook and S. T. Pantelides. “Origin of Colossal Ionic Conductivity in Oxide Multilayers: Interface Induced Sublattice Disorder”. Physical Review Letters 104 (2010), p. 115901.
Citations: 149
Physics of the eight orders of magnitude increase in the ionic conductivity of multilayer YSZ.

Invited talks

2023

31. Chinese Microscopy Society Meeting: "Electron ptychography and truly fast 4D STEM for deeper understanding of materials"
32. SUSTech Physics Department Seminar (Shenzhen, China): "Fast 4D STEM and focused probe electron ptychography in STEM"
33. ASML Research Seminar: "At the cutting edge in scanning transmission electron microscopy: 4D STEM and ptychography"
34. University of Vienna The Physics of Nanostructured Materials Seminar: "The future of microscopy: 4D STEM and ptychography"
35. NanED School on TEM Imaging and Spectroscopy (Antwerp, Belgium): "4D STEM and Ptychography"
36. AdSTEM European School on 4D STEM Imaging (Piran, Slovenia): "An overview of 4D STEM and ptychography"
37. AdSTEM European School on 4D STEM Imaging (Piran, Slovenia): "Making the most of 4D STEM with ptychography for applications ranging from ultralow dose to high precision studies"
38. ASTAR Future of Microscopy Seminar (Singapore): "Seeing materials more clearly with 4D STEM and ptychogrjphy"

2022

23. Materials Research Society Fall Meeting: "Fast and focused 4D STEM: an optimal pipeline for atomic resolution imaging in materials science"

2020

22. Faculty of Science Research Day, University of Antwerp: "Seeing how atoms build materials"

2019

21. Frontiers of Electron Microscopy in Materials Science (FEMMS 2019) Conference: "From dynamics to high dose efficiency imaging in STEM"
22. Microscopy & Microanalysis (M&M 2019) Conference: "Efficient phase contrast imaging via electron ptychography, a tutorial
23. Royal Belgian Society for Microscopy (RBSM) Meeting: "Highly efficient phase contrast imaging in STEM with electron ptychography"
24. EMAT Summer School on TEM, University of Antwerp: "Electron ptychography"
25. University of Vienna Department of Physics Seminar: "Highly efficient phase contrast imaging in STEM with electron ptychography"

2018

16. 3rd Sino-German Symposium on Advanced Electron Microscopy and Spectroscopy, Beijing: "High-definition electron microscopy: Greater clarity via multidimensionality"
17. EMAT Seminar, Department of Physics, University of Antwerp: "Achieving enhanced definition electron microscopy via quantitative phase imaging with ptychography"
18. Directors' Board Meeting Lecture, Max Planck Institute of Solid State Research: "High-definition electron microscopy: Greater clarity via multidimensionality"
19. Institute of Physics Seminar, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing: "Seeing clearer: advancing transmission electron microscopy through multidimensional approaches from ptychography to optical sectioning"
20. School of Physics Seminar, Peking University: "Advancing transmission electron microscopy through multidimensional approaches from ptychography to optical sectioning"
21. International Ringberg Castle Workshop on Multidimensionality in Electron Microscopy: "Ptychography: Dose efficiency, aberration correction, and optical sectioning"

2017

10. StEM Seminar, Max Planck Institute of Solid State Research: "Phase contrast imaging of radiation sensitive materials using ptychography in a STEM"
11. University of Vienna Department of Physics Seminar: "Phase contrast imaging of radiation sensitive materials using ptychography in a STEM'

2016

8. National University of Singapore Seminar: "Probing materials on the nanoscale with aberration-corrected STEM and first-principles theory"
9. Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics Seminar, Halle: "Probing materials on the nanoscale with aberration-corrected STEM and first-principles theory"
10. Department of Biology and Chemistry Seminar, Paul Scherrer Institute: "Ptychography in scanning transmission electron microscopy"

2015

5. Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics Seminar, Huazhong University of Science and Technology: "Probing atomic scale dynamics with Z-contrast STEM"
6. Wuhan University Department of Physics Seminar: "Probing atomic scale dynamics with Z-contrast STEM"

2014

3. Physics of Nanostructured Materials Seminar, University of Vienna: "Frontiers in aberration corrected STEM "

2013

2. Nanoscale Physics Research Lab Seminar, School of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Birmingham: "Probing materials’ functionality on the nanoscale with aberration-corrected STEM and first-principles theory"
3. European Materials Research Society (E-MRS) Fall Meeting: "Resolving the origin of materials’ properties with aberration-corrected STEM and first-principles theory"