Pedro Da Costa, PhD

Dr. Da Costa's research interests embrace a range of synthesis and characterization techniques for one- and two-dimensional materials, with particular focus on carbon nanostructures, semiconductor materials and electron microscopy. He is also engaged in the manipulation of discrete nanoscaled structures and the study of their response to externally applied stimuli. The aim of this work is to understand how novel materials behave at minute scales under near-operational conditions and use that information to optimize their design for specific technological applications.

• Nanomaterials engineering and property studies in a transmission electron microscope
  D. Golberg, P.M.F.J. Costa, M.S. Wang, X.L. Wei, D.M. Tang, Z. Xu, Y. Huang, U.K. Gautam, B.D. Liu, H. Zeng, N. Kawamoto, C. Zhi, M. Mitome, Y. Bando
  Advanced Materials, 24, 177, (2012)
• Direct imaging of Joule heating dynamics and temperature profiling inside a carbon nanotube interconnect
  P.M.F.J. Costa, U.K. Gautam, Y. Bando, D. Golberg
  Nature Communications, 2, 421, (2011)
• Effect of crystalline filling on the mechanical response of carbon nanotubes
  P.M.F.J. Costa, U.K. Gautam, M.S. Wang, Y. Bando, D. Golberg
  Carbon, 47, 541, (2009)
• Stepwise current-driven release of attogram quantities of copper iodide encapsulated in carbon nanotubes
  P.M.F.J. Costa, D. Golberg, M. Mitome, S. Hampel, A. Leonhardt, B. Buchner, Y. Bando,
  Nano Letters, 8, 3120, (2008)
• Direct force measurements and kinking under elastic deformation of individual multiwalled boron nitride nanotubes
  D. Golberg, P.M.F.J. Costa, O. Lourie, M. Mitome, X. Bai, K. Kurashima, C. Zhi, C. Tang, Y. Bando
  Nano Letters, 7, 2146, (2007)

• Ph.D., Chemistry, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom, 2004
• Licenciatura, Chemistry, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal, 1999

• 2014-Present: Adjunct Assistant Professor MSE, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal
• 2013-present: Assistant Professor MSE, KAUST, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia 
• 2010-2013: Alexander von Humboldt Fellow, IFW-Dresden, Dresden, Germany
• 2008-2013: Junior research group leader, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal
• 2006-2008: Postdoctoral fellow, National Institute for Materials Science, Tsukuba, Japan
• 2004-2006: Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom

• Materials Research Society (MRS)
• Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)
• Royal Microscopical Society (RMS)
• European Microscopy Society (EMS)

• AvH Experienced Researcher Fellowship
• MANA WPI Short Term Visiting Research Fellowship
• J.W.T. Jones Travelling Fellowship RSC
• Japan Carbon Award for Young Researchers
• University of Coimbra Chancellor’s medal

• Division of Physical Sciences and Engineering (PSE)