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Steven Spurgeon

Steven Spurgeon

National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship 2011-14
Drexel/UPENN NSF Integrated Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) 2010-11

Materials Science & Engineering PhD Candidate


Growing up my family was always on the move. My father's job at the Department of Defense meant that every two or three years we would relocate to a new city or even another country. Living in exciting places such as Germany, Greece, and Hawaii introduced me to diverse ways of life, igniting my curiosity and passion for learning. This passion eventually led me to enroll at Carnegie Mellon University, where I thought I would end up a mechanical engineering major. As luck would have it, I was required to take an introductory course in materials science and I fell in love with the subject. Unraveling the beautiful symmetries that shape crystals fascinated me, and I decided to switch majors. In the subsequent years I have had the privilege of working with leaders in the field, and I jumped at the chance to join Dr. Mitra Taheri's group at Drexel University.

My experience at Drexel has been wonderful: I have been studying magnetoelectric thin films, in collaboration with world-class physicists at several national labs. Drexel's focus on hands-on, experiential learning is unmatched by other universities. The faculty and staff are also committed to delivering the best possible education while fostering lifelong connections. I look forward to continuing my education at Drexel and to tackling the challenges of the future.