Gottlieb Uahengo Jr. received his B.Sc. in Physics from Augsburg College in Minneapolis, MN and a M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Riverside. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Engineering Physics at the University of California, San Diego conducting his research in the Advanced Materials Processing and Synthesis Laboratory (AMPS Lab). His research focuses on the preparation of rare-earth stabilized nano crystalline zirconia with tunable optical/mechanical properties.