The Tran lab research is focused on solving fundamental challenges in materials chemistry directly relevant to current energy and information technology research. Quantum and functional materials are at the forefront of new technological advances in quantum information science and spintronics. Despite impressive progress in advanced materials research, significant challenges await in terms of our fundamental understanding of the appropriate coupled spin, orbital, and lattice degrees of freedom necessary for creating and tuning targeted physical phenomena and capabilities for materials. To address this, we aim to build desired functionalities into new materials by combining chemical principles, appropriate synthetic techniques, advanced structural and physical properties characterization (e.g., advanced synchrotron X-ray, neutron diffraction, spectroscopic methods, electronic and optical properties), analytical modeling, and computational theories.