Location
Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Building, Room 331 122 Engineer's Way, Room 331
Google Scholar ExSiTE Group

About

Patrick the Whitney Stone Professor in Engineering at the University of Virginia, with a primary appointment in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and courtesy appointments in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and the Department of Physics, and the director of the ExSiTE Lab.  Patrick's research interests are in energy transport and coupled photonic interactions with condensed matter, soft materials, liquids, vapors, plasmas and their interfaces.  His lab uses various optical thermometry-based experiments to measure the thermal conductivity, thermal boundary conductance, thermal accommodation, strain propagation and sound speed, optical properties, and electron, phonon, vibrational and polaritonic scattering mechanisms in a wide array of bulk materials and nanosystems from cryogenic to ultrahigh temperatures.

Education

B.S. Mechanical Engineering, UVA, 2004

B.A. Physics, UVA, 2004

Ph.D. ​Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Virginia, 2008

​Harry S. Truman Postdoctoral Fellow, Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, NM, 2008-2011

"We are studying new materials and systems to help create more energy efficient technologies and processes."

Patrick E. Hopkins, Professor

Research Interests

Gustus L. Larson Memorial Award 2021
Gustus L. Larson Memorial Award 2021-2022
Participant in the Defense Science Study Group 2021-2023
Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers 2019
ASME Bergles-Rohsenow Young Investigator Award in Heat Transfer 2016
Outstanding Reviewer: ASME Journal of Heat Transfer 2016
National Finalist, Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists 2014
National Finalist, Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists 2013
Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award 2013
Air Force Office of Scientific Research Young Investigator Award 2013
Sandia National Laboratories Harry S. Truman Postdoctoral Fellow 2008-2011

Selected Publications

Nanoscale phonon spectroscopy reveals emergent interface vibrational structure of superlattices Nature 601, 556-561 (2022)
ABS
Tuning network topology and vibrational mode localization to achieve ultralow thermal conductivity in amorphous chalcogenides Nature Communications 12, 2817 (2021)
ABS
Thermally conductive ultra-low-k dielectric layers based on two-dimensional covalent organic frameworks Nature Materials 20, 1142-1148 (2021)
ABS
Interface controlled thermal properties of ultra-thin chalcogenide-based phase change memory devices Nature Communications 12, 774 (2021)
ABS
Long-lived modulation of plasmonic absorption by ballistic thermal injection Nature Communications 12, 774 (2021)
ABS

Awards

Gustus L. Larson Memorial Award 2021
Humboldt Research Fellowship for Experienced Researchers 2021-2022
Participant in the Defense Science Study Group 2021-2023
2021-2023 2019
ASME Bergles-Rohsenow Young Investigator Award in Heat Transfer 2016
Outstanding Reviewer: ASME Journal of Heat Transfer 2016
National Finalist, Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists 2014
Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) 2013
Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award 2013
Air Force Office of Scientific Research Young Investigator Award 2013
Sandia National Laboratories Harry S. Truman Postdoctoral Fellow 2008-2011