Noah Manz

My name is Noah Manz. I am 19 years old, and a sophomore at New Mexico Institute of Science and Technology. For the last 6 years or so, I have been fascinated by the, albeit esoteric, material known as Graphene. I am a twice alum of Intel's International Science & Engineering Fair (2016 & 2017) presenting both times with research I conducted on Graphene synthesis techniques. I have been raised in Northern New Mexico by an outdoor loving dentist father, and golden retriever loving therapist mother with one younger brother. I am an Eagle Scout and OA Vigil member, and can often be found on the weekends hiking and camping in the summer, and skiing and ice climbing in the winter. Except... not really. I've made a hobby out of building cars and motorcycles, and can also often be found in the garage building... breaking... things whenever I have the chance. Such passion has I believe inspired my interest in developing a Graphene synthesis procedure- I have a fascination with building things, and a bad habit of fixating on them once started. Though, such is the prerogative of the college engineering student.

During my time at New Mexico Tech I have been fortunate to find many mentors in the materials engineering department, one of whom is Dr. Nikolai Kalugin. He and I first met during my Junior year of high school when I was searching for spectroscopy equipment, and since then, have been collaborating on a NASA funded mechano-luminescence characterization project currently underway at NMT. He is a personal friend of Andre Geim- the 2010 Nobel laureate in physics for his work on Graphene mechanical exfoliation, and as such, has assisted me greatly in my Graphene endeavors. Dr. Kalugin and NMT graduate students Lindsay Candelaria and Brian Kowalski are both also personal friends, and I am very fortunate to have access to all three for assistance during the course of the current, and hopefully future projects.