Scott uses and develops 4D-STEM (scanning nanobeam electron diffraction) and other advanced electron-microscopy modalities, including energy-filtered techniques, to map short-range structural order and local diffraction signatures in quantum and semiconductor materials at the nanoscale.

Varnavides leads the Curious Beams Lab, using scanning transmission electron microscopy, 4D-STEM/electron ptychography, and computational phase-retrieval to obtain atomic-resolution, three-dimensional maps of electrostatic and magnetic order (e.g., antiferromagnetic textures, charge/heat/spin transport) in quantum materials — a solid-state, electron-beam analogue to optical quantum-material imaging that similarly pushes spatial resolution past conventional limits. He joined TU Delft ImPhys as Assistant Professor in 2025 after a Miller Fellowship at UC Berkeley and is building out instrumentation for functional imaging of both materials and biological systems.