STROBE Awards – Page 2

Congratulations to Kwabena Bediako for Being Awarded the 2024 Philomathia Prize

August 1, 2024|Philomathia Foundation|

The Philomathia Foundation is delighted to announce that Kwabena Bediako, assistant professor of chemistry at UC Berkeley, has been awarded the 2024 Philomathia Prize. His innovative research is pushing the boundaries of materials science and could lead to groundbreaking advancements in electronics and renewable energy.

The Philomathia Prize has been presented annually since 2022 to an early-career Berkeley faculty member, from any discipline, who demonstrates great distinction and promise in their academic field. The prize, established through a generous endowment gift from the Philomathia Foundation, comes with a monetary award of $200,000 for use at the awardee’s discretion over a three-year period.

Congratulations to Anya Grafov for being awarded the Best Poster Award at the IEEE Magnetics Summer School in Taipei

June 14, 2024|IEEE Magnetics Summer School|

Anya Grafov, a graduate student at JILA, has been awarded the Best Poster Award at the IEEE Magnetics Society Summer School 2024. Studying under JILA Fellows and University of Colorado Boulder Physics professors Margaret Murnane and Henry Kapteyn, Grafov’s poster titled “Probing Ultrafast Spin Dynamics with Extreme Ultraviolet High Harmonics” was one of only nine to receive this prestigious recognition.

“Winning this award from the IEEE Magnetics Society is an incredible honor. It validates the hard work and dedication put into our research and motivates us to continue pushing the boundaries in magnetics research,” stated Grafov. “Our technique is quite niche, so I wanted to focus my poster on our actual measurement technique and the experiments we conduct. It’s an overview of the measurement technique and examples of two recent projects we’ve been working on using our beamline.”

Highlighting the fundamentals and new research, like Grafov’s, in magnetics, the annual summer school brings together graduate students worldwide to study magnetism through lectures by international experts and poster presentations.

“It was a great experience to learn about different aspects of magnetism, from fundamental research to applied technologies like spintronic devices and magnetic artificial intelligence,” she added.

Congratulations to Oliver Shao for being awarded the Best Paper Award at the IEEE Conference on Computational Imaging Using Synthetic Apertures

June 14, 2024|NIST, IEEE Conference on Computational Imaging Using Synthetic Apertures|

Yunzhe “Oliver” Shao, a graduate student at JILA in the group led by JILA Fellows and University of Colorado Boulder Physics professors Margaret Murnane and Henry Kapteyn, has been awarded the Best Paper Award at the IEEE Conference on Computational Imaging Using Synthetic Apertures.

Shao’s winning research focused on developing an extreme ultraviolet (EUV) reflectometer. This innovative instrument is designed to characterize various nanostructured samples’ chemical compositions and spatial properties.

“This research represents a first-iteration, proof-of-concept instrumentation for nanostructure metrology,” Shao explained. “It has been constructed, developed, and improved over several generations of graduate students in our group. It is reassuring and inspiring to share its new capabilities and witness the interest it generates from the metrology community.”

The paper was submitted to the 2024 IEEE Conference on Computational Imaging Using Synthetic Apertures, created in partnership with and hosted by NIST (the National Institute of Standards and Technology). The annual event highlights advancements in cutting-edge computer imaging and sensing using high-resolution imaging systems, like the reflectometer Shao and the KM group work on.

Shao expressed gratitude for the recognition, highlighting the collective effort behind the project. “Apart from its founding members, whose names are listed in several previous publications, the reflectometer does not exist without the continuing efforts of current students and postdocs from our group, including Nick Jenkins, Clay Klein, Yunhao Li, and Jiayi Liu. We are motivated to further develop and improve this metrology instrument beyond its current limitations.”

Congrats to Gordana Dukovic for Being A Recipient of the 2024 National Brown Investigator Award

May 29, 2024|The Brown Institute for Basic Sciences at Caltech|

The Brown Institute for Basic Sciences at Caltech today announced the 2024 class of Brown Investigators. The cohort, the first selected through the newly formed Brown Institute for Basic Sciences, comprises eight distinguished mid-career faculty working on fundamental challenges in the physical sciences, particularly those with potential long-term practical applications in chemistry and physics. Each investigator will receive up to $2 million over five years.

The Brown Institute for basic Sciences at Caltech was established in 2023 through a $400-million gift to the Institute from entrepreneur, philanthropist, and alumnus Ross M. Brown (BS ’56, MS ’57).

Caltech and Brown share a common purpose: advancing fundamental science discoveries with the potential to seed breakthroughs that benefit society.

Gordana Dukovic, professor of chemistry, University of Colorado Boulder, will develop methods for chemical structure determination of biomolecules bound to inorganic nanoparticles—materials that could be useful for the conversion of solar energy directly into new chemical bonds.

Congratulations to Max Krauss for Being Awarded 2024 Computer Engineering Senior of the Year at Fort Lewis College

May 1, 2024|Fort Lewis College|

Max Krauss, an undergraduate student and Fort Lewis College, was awarded 2024 FLC Computer Engineering Senior of the Year. Congratulations, Max!

Congratulations to Christian Tanner for Being Selected as a 2024 Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings Fellow

April 8, 2024|University of California News|

The University of California today (April 8) announced its fifth class of UC President’s Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings Fellows, 27 highly accomplished young scientists awarded the opportunity to join Nobel laureates from around the globe at the 2024 Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting in Germany.

“We are thrilled to provide some of the University’s most promising scientists the opportunity to attend this one-of-a-kind scholarly summit,” said UC President Michael V. Drake, M.D. “Promoting innovation and discovery, and fostering international collaboration, are foundational to the University of California’s mission of teaching, research and public service.”

Congrats to Ho Leung Chan for Being Selected as a 2024 M&M Student Scholar

April 2, 2024|Microscopy Society of America|

Graduate student Ho Leung Chan from Prof. Chris Regan’s research group at UCLA received a 2024 M&M Student Scholar Award! Her presentation is titled “Nano-PUND and STEM EBIC Imaging for Ferroelectric Polarization Mapping.”

The award consists of free registration for the meeting, $1000 travel support, and invitations to the Presidential Reception. Applicants must be bona fide students at a recognized college or university at the time of the meeting. Awards are based on the quality of the paper submitted for presentation at the meeting. The applicant must be the first author of the submitted paper. Successful applicants must present their papers personally at the meeting in order to receive the award.

Congratulations to Tristan O’Neill for Receiving a 2024 M&M Student Poster Award

April 2, 2024|Microscopy Society of America|

Congratulations to Tristan O’Neill for receiving a 2024 M&M Student Poster Award for his poster titled, “Mapping Moiré Potentials with STEM EBIC Imaging.”

Congratulations to Laura Waller for Being Selected as the 2024 AFOSR Chief Scientist Distinguished Lecturer

March 21, 2024|Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR)|

The AFRL/AFOSR Chief Scientist Distinguished Lecture Series selected Dr. Laura Waller, the Charles A. Desoer Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at UC Berkeley, as the 2024 AFOSR Chief Scientist Distinguished Lecturer. On March 21, 2024, from 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM ET, Dr. Waller delivered a talk titled “Computational Imaging, from Microscopes to Telescopes,” exploring the joint design of imaging system hardware and software for optimized data acquisition and reconstruction.

Congratulations to Christian Tanner for Being a Finalist for the APS DSOFT Emerging Soft Matter Excellence (ESME) Award

March 1, 2024|American Physical Society|

The APS DSOFT Emerging Soft Matter Excellence (ESME) Awardrecognizes an exceptional graduate student pursuing research in soft matter physics.

To be considered for the ESME Award the student must:

be a DSOFT member;
be currently pursuing a PhD;
not have completed the PhD requirements before the October 27, 2024 application deadline.

The DSOFT ESME committee will select 12 finalists who will be invited to give a 12-minute talk in a special DSOFT Early Career Awards Symposium at the March Meeting. Finalists will also be invited to a celebratory dinner with the DSOFT Chair and ESME Committee.

The Awards Symposium will be open to all March Meeting attendees and advertised broadly to DSOFT members. Following the Symposium, the ESME Committee will select the ESME Awardee based on the quality of the candidate’s research, their presentation, and their response to questions. The winner will be announced and recognized at the DSOFT Business Meeting, and will receive $250 honorarium.