Erie Morales, Ph.D.

Visiting Assistant Professor
Department of Physics

Dr. Erie Morales obtained his Physics Ph.D. in 2010 at Tulane University working for Prof. Ulrike Diebold in Surface Science. After three years of postdoctoral research in the Materials Science Department at University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Morales became Senior Research Investigator for Prof. Dawn Bonnell. Responsibilities included assisting students in their research projects, safety protocols and training, maintaining equipment, and writing publications in peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Morales is an expert in metal oxides, such as TiO2 and BaTiO3 that are semiconductors with vastly different physical properties such as photo-activity and ferroelectricity, respectively. Surface Science allows the atomic tailoring of the surface to produce different physical and chemical properties compared to the bulk of the material. Dr. Morales is an expert in Scanning Tunneling Microscopy, X-ray Photo Spectroscopy, Low Energy Electron Diffraction, Reflection High Energy, Electron Diffraction, X-ray Diffraction, and all vacuum techniques. In 2017 Dr. Morales came to Seton Hall University and he is developing a research laboratory in materials science and involved in Astronomy using our telescope for research in exoplanets.