Profile
Thao T. Tran
Chemistry
Assistant Professor
864-656-5939
Hunter Hall 303 [Lab]
Hunter Hall 305 [Lab]
Hunter Hall 383 [Office]
Educational Background
Postdoctoral Research Associate, Chemistry & Physics, Johns Hopkins University, Institute of Quantum Matter, 2016-2019
Ph.D.., Materials Chemistry, University of Houston, 2010-2015
B.S., Chemistry, Vietnam National University, 2003-2007
Profile/About Me
Prof. Thao Tran believes in the unique intelligence of each individual and aspires to cultivate the next generation of scientists by fostering an environment that is conducive to learning, creativity, and personal and professional development.
Research Interests
Her research team is interested in solving fundamental challenges in materials chemistry directly relevant to current energy and information technology research. Quantum and functional materials are at the forefront of new technological advances in quantum information science and spintronics. Despite impressive progress in advanced materials research, significant challenges await in terms of our fundamental understanding of the appropriate coupled spin, orbital, and lattice degrees of freedom necessary for creating and tuning targeted physical phenomena and capabilities for materials. To address this, her team aims to build desired functionalities into new materials by combining chemical principles, appropriate synthetic techniques, advanced structural and physical properties characterization (e.g., advanced synchrotron X-ray, neutron diffraction, spectroscopic methods, electronic and optical properties), analytical modeling, and computational theories.
Research Group (Lab)
Courses Taught
CH 4070 / H4070 / 6070 Chemistry of Materials
CH 4020 / H4020 / 6020 Inorganic Chemistry
CH 2050 Introduction to Inorganic Chemistry
CH 9000 Functional Materials Chemistry
CH 1010 General Chemistry
CH 4990 Creative Inquiry
CH 4430 / 4440 Undergraduate Research
Honors and Awards
2025 Emerging Leader in Materials Science, Applied Physics Letters (APL) Materials
2024 Scialog Fellow, Research Corporation for Science Advancement
2024 Junior Researcher of the Year, Vice President for Research, Clemson University
2024 SCIENCE Rising Star in Discovery Award
2024 NSF CAREER Award
2024 Rising Star in Materials Chemistry Science, ACS Materials Au
2023 Top Faculty Highlight for the Board of Trustees
2023 Beckman Young Investigator Award
2023 NSF EPSCOR Research Fellowship
2016 Dean's Science Postdoctoral Teaching Fellowship, Johns Hopkins University
2014 Cora Hawley Endowed Scholarship, Texas Center for Superconductivity, University of Houston
2014 Ludo Frevel Crystallography Scholarship, The International Center for Diffraction Data Award
