Samuel Erickson is a 4th year Ph.D. candidate with over 5 years of interdisciplinary research experience spanning molecular beam epitaxy, perovskite photovoltaics, and the effects of radiation on semiconductors. He earned his B.S. in Physics from the University of Arkansas before joining Dr. Sayantani Ghosh’s lab at the University of California, Merced in 2019. Sam investigated useful optoelectronic characterization and thin film deposition techniques as a MACES (Merced nAnomaterials Center for Energy and Sensing) Fellow in 2020-2021. He has since conducted perovskite photovoltaics research as a CONDESA (Convergence of Nano-engineered Devices for Environmental and Sustainable Applications) and Dan David Fellow. He currently works on the collaborative “Perovskites in Space” team with NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) and NASA Glenn Research Center.