Harris Pirie is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Materials Science and NanoEngineering. He received his Ph.D. in Physics from Harvard University, where he used scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) to image correlated topological materials, and developed acoustic metamaterials as macroscopic platforms for emulating quantum behavior. As a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at the University of Oxford, he pioneered a new STM technique to image how electronic charge is distributed at the atomic scale in complex materials. At Rice, his group combines acoustic metamaterials, molecular beam epitaxy, and low-temperature STM to prototype, fabricate, and characterize quantum materials, linking real-space structure to emergent physical properties.
Research Areas
Quantum materials including high-temperature superconductors, strongly correlated electron systems, topological phases, and two-dimensional materials; scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy, molecular beam epitaxy, acoustic metamaterials
Education
2021 Ph.D. in Physics, Harvard University, Thesis: Interacting quantum materials and their acoustic analogs. Advisor: Prof. Jennifer Hoffman
2014 B.Sc. (Hons, First Class) in Physics, University of Canterbury, New Zealand
Advisory Role
Outreach & mentorship 2017–present Mentored research projects for 33 undergraduates and 9 high school students. 2026 Army Educational Outreach Program, Faculty program director 2025 Science on the Radio, WRFM. 2018–2022 Expert Contributor, BBC Television
Teaching Areas
2026 MSNE 406: Physical properties of solids
Societies & Organizations
Service 2023–present Reviewer for Nature, Nature Communications, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 2023 Gordon and Betty Moore foundation EPiQS funding program reviewer.
Honors & Awards
2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship
2020 Gertrude and Maurice Goldhaber Prize, Harvard University
2016 Purcell Fellowship, Harvard University
2014 C C Farr Memorial Scholarship, University of Canterbury