Professor Balandin’s research interests include advanced materials for applications in electronics and energy conversion; quantum, strongly correlated, and topological materials; Raman and Brillouin-Mandelstam spectroscopy; thermal properties of materials and thermal management; electronic noise in materials and devices; nanoscale phonon engineering and phonon transport; electromagnetics; emerging electronic devices; quantum science and technologies.

• J. O. Brown, T. Guo, F. Pasqualetti, and A. A. Balandin, “Charge-density-wave quantum oscillator networks for solving combinatorial optimization problems,” Phys. Rev. Appl., 24, 024040 (2025).
• J. Teeter, N. Y. Kim, T. Debnath, N. Sesing, T. Geremew, D. Wright, M. Chi, A. Z. Stieg, J. Miao, R. K. Lake, T. T. Salguero, and A. A. Balandin, “Achieving the 1D atomic chain limit in Van der Waals crystals,” Adv. Mater, 2409898 (2024);
• Z. Barani, T. Geremew, M. Stokey, N. Sesing, M. Taheri, M. J. Hilfiker, F. Kargar, M. Schubert, T. T. Salguero, and A. A. Balandin, “Quantum composites with charge-density-wave fillers", Adv. Mater., 2209708 (2023)
• A. A. Balandin, F. Kargar, T. T. Salguero, and R. Lake, “One-dimensional van der Waals quantum materials", Mater. Today, 55, 74 (2022)
• M. Taheri, J. Brown, A. Rehman, N. Sesing, F. Kargar, T. T. Salguero, S. Rumyantsev, and A. A. Balandin, "Electrical Gating of the Charge-Density-Wave Phases in Two-Dimensional h-BN/1T-TaS2 Devices", ACS Nano, 16, 11, 18968 (2022)
• F. Kargar and A. A. Balandin, “Advances in Brillouin–Mandelstam light-scattering spectroscopy", Nature Photonics, 33, 720 (2021)
• Z. Barani, F. Kargar, Y. Ghafouri, S. Ghosh, K. Godziszewski, S. Baraghani, Y. Yashchyshyn, G. Cywiński, S. Rumyantsev, T. T. Salguero, and A. A. Balandin, “Electrically insulating flexible films with quasi-1D van der Waals fillers as efficient electromagnetic shields in the GHz and sub-THz frequency bands", Adv. Mater., 33, 2007286 (2021)
• S. Rumyantsev, M. Balinskiy, F. Kargar, A. Khitun, and A. A. Balandin, “The discrete noise of magnons,” Appl. Phys. Lett., 114, 090601 (2019)
• G. Liu, E. X. Zhang, C. Liang, M. Bloodgood, T. Salguero, D. Fleetwood, A. A. Balandin, “Total-ionizing-dose effects on threshold switching in 1T-TaS2 charge density wave devices,” IEEE Electron. Device Lett., 38, 1724 (2017)
• G. Liu, B. Debnath, T. R. Pope, T. T. Salguero, R. K. Lake, and A. A. Balandin, “A charge-density-wave oscillator based on an integrated tantalum disulfide–boron nitride–graphene device operating at room temperature,” Nature Nano, 11, 845 (2016)
• F. Kargar, B. Debnath, J.-P. Kakko, A. Säynätjoki, H. Lipsanen, D. L. Nika, R. K. Lake, and A. A. Balandin, “Direct observation of confined acoustic phonon polarization branches in free-standing semiconductor nanowires,” Nature Com., 7, 13400 (2016)
• A. A. Balandin, “Low-frequency 1/f noise in graphene devices,” Nature Nano, 8, 549 (2013)
• Z. Yan, G. Liu, J. M. Khan, and A. A. Balandin, “Graphene quilts for thermal management of high-power GaN transistors,” Nature Com., 3, 827 (2012)
• S. Rumyantsev, G. Liu, M. S. Shur, R. A. Potyrailo, and A. A. Balandin, “Selective gas sensing with a single pristine graphene transistor,” Nano Lett., 12, 2294 (2012)
• A. A. Balandin, “Thermal properties of graphene and nanostructured carbon materials,” Nature Mater., 10, 569 (2011)
• S. Ghosh, W. Bao, D. L. Nika, S. Subrina, E. P. Pokatilov, C. N. Lau, and A. A. Balandin, “Dimensional crossover of thermal transport in few-layer graphene,” Nature Mater., 9, 555 (2010)
• A. A. Balandin, S. Ghosh, W. Bao, I. Calizo, D. Teweldebrhan, F. Miao, and C. N. Lau, “Superior thermal conductivity of single-layer graphene,” Nano Lett., 8, 902 (2008)

• Alexander Balandin, a distinguished professor of materials science and engineering at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, has been named to hold the Fang Lu Endowed Chair in Engineering (2025): https://samueli.ucla.edu/distinguished-professor-alexander-balandin-appointed-to-fang-lu-endowed-chair-in-engineering/
• Charge-density-wave coupled-oscillators solve complex optimization problems (2025): https://balandin-group.ucla.edu/charge-density-wave-coupled-oscillators-solve-complex-optimization-problems/
• NSF-funded Brillouin – Mandelstam Light Scattering Spectroscopy (BMS) Facility, built by Alexander Balandin’s group, enters operation at the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA (2024): https://balandin-group.ucla.edu/new-nsf-funded-advanced-spectroscope-enters-operation-at-ucla/
• UCLA engineering welcomes new faculty members https://samueli.ucla.edu/ucla-engineering-welcomes-two-new-faculty-members/ (2023)
• Balandin’s group creates “quantum composites” for various electrical and optical innovations https://news.ucr.edu/articles/2023/04/18/ucr-team-creates-quantum-composites-various-electrical-and-optical-innovations (2023)
• Alexander Balandin’s Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship will help advance quantum materials for electronics and energy conversion https://news.ucr.edu/articles/2021/05/07/3-million-award-create-new-field-research-one-dimensional-quantum-materials (2021)
• Polymer film protects from electromagnetic radiation, signal interference https://news.ucr.edu/articles/2021/02/22/polymer-film-protects-electromagnetic-radiation-signal-interference (2021)
• Magnonic devices can replace electronics without much noise https://phys.org/news/2019-03-magnonic-devices-electronics-noise.html (2019)
• One-dimensional material packs a powerful punch for next generation electronics https://phys.org/news/2018-05-one-dimensional-material-powerful-electronics.html

• Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, University of Notre Dame (1996)
• M.S. in Applied Physics, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (1991)

• Fang Lu Endowed Chair in Engineering (2025)
• The Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellow (2021)
• The Brillouin Medal from the International Phononics Society (2019)
• Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researcher (2015)
• Fellow of The Materials Research Society (2014)
• The MRS Medal from The Materials Research Society (2013)
• Fellow of The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (2013)
• Fellow of The American Physical Society (2012)
• The Pioneer of Nanotechnology Award from IEEE (2011)
• Fellow of The International Society for Optical Engineering (2011)
• Fellow of The Optical Society of America (2011)
• Semiconductor Research Corporation Inventor Award (2009, 2010)
• Fellow of The American Association for the Advancement of Science (2007)
• Visiting Fellow, Pembroke College, University of Cambridge (2005)
• ONR Young Investigator Award (2002)
• NSF Faculty CAREER Award (2001)
• The University of California Regents Faculty Award (2000)
• US Civil Research and Development Foundation Award (1999)
• Merrill Lynch Innovative Engineering Research Award, New York (1998)
• Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award, University of Notre Dame (1996)
• Eta Kappa Nu Engineering Honor Society, Notre Dame (1994)