Rate My Professor Ethan Minot

Ethan Minot is Professor of Physics and serves as Interim Department Head of the Department of Physics at Oregon State University in the College of Science. He received his Ph.D. in Physics from Cornell University in 2004, where he worked in Paul McEuen's group on the physics of carbon nanotubes. Prior to that, he earned his B.S. in Physics from Massey University in New Zealand in 1999, studying nuclear magnetic resonance in Paul Callaghan's group. After his Ph.D., Minot held postdoctoral positions at Delft University of Technology: in 2005 with Leo Kouwenhoven's quantum transport and optics group, and in 2006 with Cees Dekker's molecular biophysics group. He joined Oregon State University in 2007 as an Assistant Professor of Physics, was promoted to Associate Professor in 2012, and to Professor in 2020.

Minot leads the Minot Lab, an experimental condensed matter physics group focused on quantum materials, including carbon nanotubes, graphene, and two-dimensional semiconductors. His research aims to understand quantum phenomena and develop next-generation semiconductor devices for logic, memory, and sensing applications. Expertise includes semiconductor processing, nanoscale metrology, electronic and optoelectronic measurements, scanning photocurrent microscopy, carbon-based photovoltaics, and interfacing nanoelectronics with biology. The lab has produced impactful work, such as a landmark Science publication in collaboration with Aalto University on an AI-powered spectrometer small enough to fit on a microchip. Minot's contributions have been recognized with several honors, including the 2018 College of Science Milton Harris Award in Basic Research, the 2011 NSF CAREER Award, the 2010 Human Frontier Science Program Young Investigator Award, the 2014 Kavli Fellowship at Cornell University, and the 2000 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. He is dedicated to teaching and mentorship, training students in cleanroom fabrication and advanced instrumentation, and facilitating their transitions to industry positions at companies like Intel.