Rate My Professor Paul Evans

Paul Evans is a Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, holding the Surface Science and Technology Bascom Professorship since 2022. He earned a BS degree from Cornell University in 1994, an MS from Harvard University in 1996, and a PhD from Harvard University in 2000. His career at the University of Wisconsin-Madison includes recognition as a Vilas Mid-Career Investigator in 2014 and Vilas Associate in 2019. Evans leads the Evans Research Group, mentoring graduate students in materials engineering and science programs, with alumni advancing to academic and industry positions. He teaches courses such as Structure of Materials, Advanced X-ray Scattering Methods in Materials Science and Engineering, and Materials Experience, earning the Polygon Engineering Student Council’s Outstanding Instructor Award in 2006.

Evans's research develops and applies X-ray scattering techniques to study nanoscale structure and dynamics in epitaxial oxide thin films and heterostructures. His investigations cover high-resolution strain imaging in acoustic wave devices, epitaxial growth of conducting perovskites like SrTiO3 on sapphire and SiO2, solid-phase epitaxial crystallization mechanisms, transient disorder in phase transitions, spin texture imaging, charge-density wave domain dynamics at XFELs, and patterning of nanoscale complex oxide arrays. Key publications include 'Electronic transport in nanometre-scale silicon-on-insulator membranes' (Nature, 2006), 'Crystallization of charge holes in the spin ladder of Sr14Cu24O41' (Nature, 2004), 'Direct oriented growth of armchair graphene nanoribbons on germanium' (Nature Communications, 2015), 'Subterahertz collective dynamics of polar vortices' (Nature, 2021), and the book 'X-Ray Scattering Techniques for Epitaxial Oxide Thin Films' (Springer, 2025). His contributions advance materials characterization for spintronics, quantum devices, and energy technologies, with involvement in MRSEC projects and national facilities like Argonne National Laboratory.