Ankit Disa

Ankit Disa is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Applied and Engineering Physics at Cornell University, leading the Disa Lab. He holds a B.S. from Cornell (2010) and a Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Yale (2016). His postdoctoral research at the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter focused on ultrafast optical control of quantum materials. He joined Cornell in 2022 after receiving an Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship (2017) and a fellowship from the Max Planck-NYC Center (2019).

His research explores quantum materials at ultrafast timescales (femto- to picoseconds) using terahertz and optical techniques. Key areas include manipulating electronic/magnetic properties via light-induced non-equilibrium phases, engineering atomically precise heterostructures, and designing functional materials for energy/quantum computing. The lab investigates superconductors, magnets, and ferroelectrics, with a focus on light-matter interactions and interfacial phenomena.

Awards include the APS Ovshinsky Student Award (2015), NSF Graduate Fellowship (2011), and Cornell’s Dorothy and Fred Chau Award (2010). The Disa Lab’s recent work includes studies on photo-induced ferromagnetism in YTiO3 and metastable ferroelectricity in strained SrTiO3. The group develops novel optical tools for ultrafast dynamics and integrates atomic-scale synthesis with advanced characterization techniques.

Advisees and team members include graduate students, postdocs, and undergraduates engaged in cutting-edge projects, such as Chris (NDSEG Fellow 2024) and Pranav (Chau Award 2024 recipient). Ongoing research aims to establish non-equilibrium materials design paradigms by controlling light-matter interactions at the atomic scale.