STROBE Awards

Yuka Esashi has been announced as the 2021 recipient of the $10,000 Nick Cobb Memorial Scholarship by SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, and Mentor Graphics, a Siemens Business, for her potential contributions to the field related to advanced lithography.  Esashi is pursuing her PhD in physics at the University of Colorado Boulder in the Kapteyn-Murnane group. She is co-lead of a research team that is addressing much-needed advances in metrology techniques for the semiconductor industry, where techniques with high resolution, fidelity and sensitivity are needed. With her team, Esashi has developed phase-sensitive EUV imaging reflectometry, a novel technique which combines computational imaging with EUV reflectometry to measure depth-dependent chemical composition of semiconductor samples in a spatially-resolved and non-destructive manner. In her current research, she is planning on applying this technique to a wider range of next-generation structures and materials. Esashi received her BA in Physics from Reed College in 2017, and her MS in Physics from the University of Colorado Boulder in 2019.

The NAI Fellows Program was established to highlight academic inventors who have demonstrated a prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development and the welfare of society. Election to NAI Fellow status is the highest professional distinction accorded solely to academic inventors.

Congratulations to Yuka Esashi for Being Selected as a Winner of the 2020 Colorado Photonics Industry Association (CPIA) Poster Contest. Yuka’s poster title is, “Phase-Sensitive EUV Imaging Reflectometer for Depth-Dependent Composition Determination.”

Congratulations to Sakshi Singh for Being Selected as a Winner of the 2020 Colorado Photonics Industry Association (CPIA) Poster Contest. Sakshi’s poster is titled, “Robust, fast, and high-resolution ultra-thin fiber endoscopes.“

Calina Glynn (Callie) is a fifth year Biochemistry, Molecular and Structural Biology (BMSB) student in Professor Jose Rodriguez’s group. Prior to coming to UCLA in 2016, Callie received her B.A. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Boston University, where she studied Fe-S cluster binding proteins with Dr. Deborah Perlstein.

Callie’s graduate work focuses on uncovering the structures of prion fibrils that bestow them with unique biophysical properties. Prion diseases arise via the self-templated misfolding of the soluble prion protein into pathogenic protease, denaturant, and heat resistant prion fibrils (PrPSc). Callie has uncovered the structure of a protease and denaturant-resistant human prion fibril that explains the unique biophysical properties characteristic of PrPSc using cryo-electron microscopy. Callie aims to uncover differences in the favored fold, stability, and seeding ability of fibrils from disease-associated variants of the human prion protein and other mammalian prion proteins whose aggregation leads to disease.

The title of Callie’s Fowler Fellow talk is “Structures at the Core of Mammalian Prions”.

In honor of National Hispanic Heritage Month, we’re showcasing 100 of the most inspiring Hispanic/Latinx scientists working in the United States. This list—selected based on scholarly achievements, mentoring excellence, and commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion—represents only a subset of the scientific role models in the community. Our aim in assembling these names is to put an end to the harmful myth that there are not enough diverse scientists to give seminars, serve as panelists, or fill scientific positions. We highlight scientists encompassing careers within academia, government, and biotech and showcase individuals committed to serving diverse student populations at Hispanic-serving institutions. Although we understand this list is not fully representative of the Hispanic/Latinx scientific community, we hope it will help to change the perception of what a scientist looks like and makes our collective image more representative of society at large.

The Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation announced today its 2020 class of Arnold O. Beckman Postdoctoral Fellows in Chemical Sciences, individuals who underscore the Foundation’s mission of supporting basic research in the chemical sciences and chemical instrumentation. They were selected after a three-part review led by a panel of scientific experts. The Foundation will award more than $4 million in funding over the next three years for 14 exceptional research fellows from 7 universities.

The National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship is a highly competitive, portable fellowship that is awarded to U.S. citizens and nationals who intend to pursue a doctoral degree in one of fifteen supported disciplines. NDSEG confers high honors upon its recipients, and allows them to attend whichever U.S. institution they choose. NDSEG Fellowships last for three years and pay for full tuition and all mandatory fees, a monthly stipend, and up to $1,000 a year in medical insurance (this excludes dental and vision insurance).

The Department of Defense (DoD) is committed to increasing the number and quality of our nation’s scientists and engineers, and towards this end, has awarded nearly 3,400 NDSEG fellowships since the program’s inception in 1989. The NDSEG Fellowship is sponsored by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), the Army Research Office (ARO), and the Office of Naval Research (ONR), under the direction of the Director of Defense Research and Engineering (DDR&E).

Congratulations to Philipp Pelz for receiving an M&M 2020 Postdoctoral Scholar Award for “Phase Contrast Imaging in Thick, Heterogeneous Samples via S-Matrix Phase Retrieval and Depth Sectioning.”

Congratulations to Philipp Pelz for receiving an M&M 2020 Postdoctoral Scholar Award for “Determining Atomic Structures from Digitally Defined Regions of Nanocrystals.”