Tyler Merz: Innovating from the Start

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Always up for something new, Tyler Merz didn’t hesitate when, as a freshman, he signed up to be Leonard Brillson’s research assistant.

Brillson, a professor of electrical and computer engineering and physics, usually mentors students with more experience. Merz turned out to be the exception.

“I was impressed with his intelligence, interest in science and high level of maturity for such a young student,” Brillson says.

Once in the lab, Merz proved his abilities by using an atomic force microscope to measure surface photovoltage spectra, which would determine the properties of semiconductors at the nanoscale, something that had never been done before.

“Tyler did it in a matter of a week,” Brillson says.

Merz, now a senior in engineering physics, is no beginner when it comes to innovation and unique experiences. His research and academic career have spanned various disciplines and even diverse countries.

After his freshman year, Merz backpacked through Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic. The next summer, he went to Munich, Germany, and examined magnetic materials at the Technical University, finding not only a new field of research but also a distinct culture and lifelong friends. And he spent last summer in New York at Cornell University completing a research experience for undergraduates in yet another research area, growing crystals.

The Cornell experience was unlike anything an undergraduate student could reasonably accomplish during the school year, he says. Growing a 1-square-centimeter crystal sample took a period of constant observation, which meant Merz had to be in the lab for 18 hours straight — time he usually would have spent studying, going to class or even catching up on some much-needed sleep.

Now Merz will travel to England with funding from the Churchill Scholarship, which was founded by American friends of Winston Churchill who wanted to always have American students at Churchill College at the University of Cambridge.

The award honors students who display “a bewildering array of talents” outside of academic pursuits. Merz received the scholarship for achievements such as taking first place in the Denman Undergraduate Research Forum, winning the Goldwater Scholarship and presenting his research with Brillson in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The scholarship will pay Merz’s tuition and living and travel expenses while he studies materials that could allow the electronics industry to create cheaper and more environmentally friendly laser-based devices by doubling the number and color of lasers that are available.

After completing his master’s degree in physics, Merz hopes to return to the United States and obtain his doctoral degree from Stanford University. His main career goal is to become a professor and guide his students just as Brillson and the international faculty he worked with guided him.

“All the professors have been extremely good mentors,” says Merz. “To be able to do that would be amazing.”

Category: Students