Academic Credentials
  • Ph.D., Physics, University of Southern California, 2021
  • M.S., Physics, University of California, Irvine, 2017
  • B.S., Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, 2012
Additional Education & Training
  • A/B Testing, Udacity, 2021
  • Fundamentals of Machine Learning; Scaling Theory; Computation in Complex Systems, Santa Fe Institute, 2020
  • Google Data Analytics, Coursera, 2022
Professional Affiliations
  • American Physical Society (APS), Member

Dr. Naughton's experience spans several disciplines, from applied electrical/ device engineering, to material characterization, to theory and simulation of bioelectronic systems. By virtue of specializing in biophysics, he maintains expertise in biological fields, namely cell culturing, microbiology, and marine biology. 

Dr. Naughton has extensive knowledge of optical spectroscopy and X-ray characterization of polymeric, semi-conductive, and living materials. He also has expertise with a large range of experimental, theoretical, statistical and analytical tools. Experimental tools include scanning electron microscopy (SEM), IV characterization, photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), circular dichroism (CD), dynamic light scattering (DLS), and optical microscopy. Theoretical/ modeling tools include MATLAB and COMSOL. Moreover, he maintains knowledge of C/C++ and Python software languages for performing statistical analysis, contributing to data science efforts, and developing software.

Prior to joining Exponent, Dr. Naughton earned a Physics Ph.D. at the University of Southern California studying biophysics. His work focused in part on characterizing biomaterials that enable bioelectricity and engineering experimental devices for biochemical measurements. His work also revolved around developing theories and simulations of bio-inorganic interfaces. Moreover, he contributed to theoretical projects modeling emergence in complex systems, e.g. the interactions networks among microbes, cells, insects, and people.

During his bachelor's (UC Santa Barbara) and master's degrees (UC Irvine), he engineered devices, materials, and textiles inspired by octopus, squid, and cuttlefish. In this spirit, he performed failure analysis testing, quality control experiments, and extensive bioelectronic and material science characterization. He also performed computational finite element analysis of material self-assembly. He holds a patent for a thermoregulatory cloth inspired by cephalopods with industry partners and the US Department of Energy. He has worked with various defense contractors to develop opto-electronic devices. Prior to graduate school, Dr. Naughton worked as a process engineer at a start-up microfabrication company in Santa Barbara making microfluidic devices for the biotech industry.