Team Members
Principal Investigator
Dr. Joshua L. Knobloch
Assistant Professor of Physics
Dr. Joshua L. Knobloch is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics at Utah State University. He received his B.S. degree in physics and mathematics from Purdue University (2014). And, he received his M.S. (2018) and Ph.D. (2020) in physics from the University of Colorado Boulder under the advisement of Profs. Margaret Murnane and Henry Kapteyn. From 2020-2024, he was a postdoctoral associate and then a senior research associate at JILA—a joint research institute between the Department of Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder and NIST Boulder. He has received multiple awards for his educational and research success including the Purdue College of Science Most Outstanding Physics Student for three consecutive years, the Semiconductor Research Corporation Education Alliance/Intel Graduate Research Fellowship, and the graduate Student Presentation Award at TECHCON. His work has been published in journals including PNAS, Science Advances, ACS Nano, and Nano Letters with one publication receiving a top 5% ‘attention score’ and featured in several news outlets including Denver7 News on ABC. Outside of science, he enjoys spending time with his son, hiking, camping, snowboarding, basketball, and playing piano/singing.
Graduate Research Assistants
Jamie Harford
Jamie Harford grew up in Boulder County, Colorado. In the fall of 2019, he started undergrad at Syracuse University, in Syracuse, New York. During his undergrad, Jamie was involved with the high energy theory and cosmology group, finding numerical solutions to transverse field Ising models in curved 2D geometries. In the spring of 2023, Jamie graduated summa cum laude with a B.S. in Physics and a minor in Mathematics. That same fall he started as a PhD track graduate student in Physics at Utah State University. Jamie joined the UV spectroscopy group in the fall of 2024. Outside of physics, Jamie loves music, making ceramics, reading fiction, watching the Colorado Rockies, and all things outdoors.
Undergraduate Researchers
James Leishmann
Caleb Black
Caleb Black is earning his bachelor's degree in physics with a minor in electrical engineering. His research explores the precision aspects of optical systems, including interferometric design, off-axis parabolic properties, and advanced alignment procedures. Beyond the lab, he is committed to fostering community and opportunity for undergraduates through leadership in professional societies at USU. He serves as vice president of the Society of Physics Students (SPS) and the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE), as well as outreach coordinator for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Through these leadership roles, he has organized conferences, presentations, and social events that foster growth and connection among those around him. Caleb is driven by a passion for discovery and using science and engineering to shape the future.