From The Bahamas' seas to a Berkeley degree, physics has carried me a long way.

I’m Paul W. Roberts, a Bahamian physicist who graduated from UC Berkeley (B.A. Physics, ’25) determined to help shape the next generation of 2D-material and semiconductor technologies.

Academics/Research:

In 2025 I graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, receiving a Bachelor's in Physics. During my schooling, I spent two years (2023-2025) in Prof. Michael F. Crommie's lab as an undergraduate researcher under mentorship from Dr. Hsin-Zon Tsai. 

I fabricated graphene field-effect transistors (GFETs) and low-dimensional heterostructures, characterizing these devices with the help of graduate students using techniques like scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). I wrote LabVIEW software to interface with an STM in order to help collect data from these devices. 

Both in and out the lab I helped coordinate with graduate students and physics faculty, setting up new lab infrastructure for hydrogen-plasma etching, as well as developing plans for soundproofing rooms where Helium compressors are located. In addition, my communication skills led to me mentoring three new undergraduate researchers to the lab, teaching them the fabrication process for highest quality, as well as helping familiarize two graduate students with the fabrication process.

My work in the lab culminated in my first peer-reviewed publication in ACS Nano: "Gate-tunable molecular diffusion on a graphene field-effect transistor".

Personal:
In my personal life, I love the creative arts. Since early high school I've been working in video production, music production, audio engineering, and writing. I spend a lot of my free time writing and producing music as well as directing and editing videos for my music. I publish my work online under the pseudonym "gilopaolo", publishing my music on streaming platforms like Spotify and SoundCloud, as well as uploading music videos on YouTube. Some of my works have amassed over 200,000 plays! I don't work on these creative projects with the intention of getting popular, but it's always amazing to see how much people resonate with my creative projects.

Part of what drives my passion towards physics is I feel it's inherently a very creative field. Physics is the language the universe uses to communicate with us, in the same way that art is the language humans use to communicate with others. The greatest innovators of our time are also incredibly creative, just think of how Galileo, Newton, Einstein, Boltzmann, Maxwell, or any other scientist could have developed frameworks that so fundamentally shook our understanding of what we understood to be reality. They don't get there through pure logical rigor, there has to be a mental leap of faith taken, one that can only be done by a deeply creative mind.

What's Next:

I’m looking to join a team pushing the frontier of 2D-material integration, nano-fabrication, or semiconductor process engineering. 

You can contact me via:

• Email: paulwroberts3@gmail.com

• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/paulwroberts