Welcome to the ExSiTE Lab (Experiments and Simulations in Thermal Engineering) at UVA, and research homepage for Professor Patrick E. Hopkins. Our group’s interests are in energy transport and coupled photonic interactions with condensed matter, soft materials, liquids, vapors, plasmas and their interfaces. We use various optical thermometry-based experiments to measure the thermal conductivity, thermal boundary conductance, thermal accommodation, strain propagation and sound speed, optical properties, and electron, phonon, vibrational and polaritonic scattering mechanisms in a wide array of bulk materials and nanosystems.
Group Member Publication: Wiedemann-Franz Law failure in Ru and W films due to phonon thermal conductivity – Congrats Dr. Rafiqul Islam!!
Islam, Md.R., et al., “Unveiling phonon contributions to thermal conductivity and the applicability of the Wiedemann-Franz Law in ruthenium and tungsten thin films,” Advanced Functional Materials 36, e11592 (2026).
ExSiTE Group at Carter’s Mountain in Charlottesville, VA, Fall 2025
Take a virtual tour of the ExSiTE Lab
Contact Information
Patrick E. Hopkins
122 Engineer’s Way
Mechanical Engineering Building
PO Box 400746
Charlottesville, VA 22904-4746
phone: 434-924-6297
fax: 434-982-2037
email: phopkins@virginia.edu
Video and pictures courtesy of Tom Daly Photography
patrickehopkins.com 