Sebastian Fernández received his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering (EE) in 2019 from the Georgia Institute of Technology and his master’s degree in EE in 2021 from Stanford University, where he currently is a PhD candidate in EE. He is developing commercially viable next-generation perovskite light-emitting diodes (PeLEDs) primarily for solid-state lighting, display, and human health applications. In a first-author paper, he outlined how he engineered manganese-doped PeLEDs with a molecular additive, resulting in one of the brightest and most energy-efficient transition metal-doped PeLEDs recorded to date. As a faculty member, his research mission will revolve around engineering new optoelectronic devices based on emerging classes of semiconducting nanomaterials for applications in solid-state lighting, display technologies, human health, quantum computing, virtual reality, and more. As an undergraduate, he independently created a free online lecture series on differential equations that has amassed more than 300,000 views and is used by students nationwide. He is the principal founder of two outreach initiatives — Stanford Engineering Research Introductions Organization (SERIO) and Stanford Engineering Research Introductions (SERIS) Program — geared toward empowering early undergraduate students (especially underrepresented minorities) to pursue graduate engineering research. Collectively, Fernndez secured more than $34,000 in 2022, 2023, and 2024 to fully fund 64 students from 19 institutions to attend the two-day intensive SERIS program. As the vice chair of the Dean’s Graduate Student Advisory Council, he worked with engineering leadership to implement the Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Initiative Funding Awards. Custom lecture videos for enhanced flipped classroom learning and the “think-pair-share” strategy will be staples in his future classrooms.

Research Interests

Semiconductors, Optoelectronics, Nanotechnology, Light-Emitting Technologies