Suraj Cheema

Suraj Cheema is the AMAX Career Development Professor and Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT, with a joint appointment in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. His research focuses on atomic-scale engineering of ferroelectric materials for energy-efficient microelectronics, including negative capacitance effects to enhance device performance. He leads the Ferroelectric Materials and Devices Group, emphasizing lab-to-fab translation of next-generation technologies.

Education: B.S. in Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics from Columbia University (Francis Rhodes Prize recipient), Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from UC Berkeley, and postdoc in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Berkeley. His internship at MIT Lincoln Laboratory integrated ferroelectric materials into defense transistor technologies.

Research interests span ferroelectric heterostructures, energy storage capacitors, and self-powered microsystems. Recent work explores ultralow-power logic transistors and on-chip energy harvesting.

Key awards include the 2024 Early Career Development Award (MIT RLE), 2023 Young Faculty Award (MIT.nano), and the 2023 Richard L. Greene Dissertation Award (APS). His articles address advanced transistor design, ferroelectric memory, and material characterization.

Future projects aim to develop self-powered intelligent microsystems combining computing, memory, and sensing. His work bridges materials innovation with practical applications in sustainable electronics.