Akhlesh Lakhtakia

This postdoctoral position is based in the Lakhtakia research team in the College of Engineering at The Pennsylvania State University, within the Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics. The project sits at the intersection of computational optoelectronics, mathematical modeling, and numerical simulation, with a focus on integrated energy microgenerators containing compound semiconductors. The scholar will work under the direction of Prof. Akhlesh Lakhtakia and collaborate with Prof. Anna Mazzucato in Mathematics at Penn State, Prof. Peter B. Monk in Mathematics at the University of Delaware, and a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Delaware. The research program is highly interdisciplinary, combining applied mathematics, semiconductor physics, and scientific computing to study coupled optical and electronic processes in device systems. Research activities include building and analyzing two- and three-dimensional models for optical and electronic behavior, developing high-order numerical methods for semiconductor drift-diffusion and Maxwell systems, and studying how grain boundaries, defects, interfaces, material properties, and illumination conditions affect carrier transport, recombination, and device performance. The work also includes mathematical analysis and optimization of bandgap profiles, layer thicknesses, device geometry, and tandem integrated energy microgenerator configurations. The role is strongly software- and computation-oriented, with responsibilities that include implementing and improving finite-element and discontinuous-Galerkin tools in Python, carrying out computational validation, and preparing research outputs such as manuscripts, conference presentations, technical documentation, and research software. The project is collaborative and spans multiple institutions and research areas.