Steven Gomez Alvarado

Steven is from Los Angeles, CA, where he obtained his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from UCLA. Before arriving at UCSB, he worked on several projects for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Steven obtained my Ph.D. in Materials in 2025, where I worked in the Wilson Group, with a focus on tuning electronic and magnetic phases in complex oxides. He is working on commissioning a state-of-the-art high-pressure laser floating zone furnace to grow high quality crystals of interesting quantum materials, and utilizes neutron and X-ray scattering techniques to characterize their ground states. Steven is a recipient of the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, the GEM Fellowship, and the Eugene Cota-Robles Fellowship. Outside of the lab, Steven enjoys creating and listening to music, performing mariachi, and working to improve equity and parity in STEM with organizations like the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers and the Society for the Advancement of Chicanxs/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science.