Academics / Undergraduate Study / Student Awards Past Awardees
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2020
Undergraduate Research and Design
Leah Borgsmiller, “Estimation of Fracture Toughness from Quantum Mechanical Ideal Strength Calculations” Advisors: Professor Jeff Snyder / Dr. Matthias Agne
Leah will enter the Ph.D. program in Materials Science and Engineering at Northwestern in fall 2020.
Undergraduate Leadership, Scholarship and Service
William Jeang: As President and Outreach Coordinator of the MatSci Club, William has been active in K-12 outreach and peer mentoring, developing demonstrations and working to increase awareness of materials science and foster a sense of community. He has been a member of the Rogers group for his entire Northwestern career, and plans to pursue a PhD in polymers and soft matter at MIT.
2019
Undergraduate Research and Design
Daniel Ng, “ Effect of Rafting on Tensile Creep of Single Crystal Cobalt-based Superalloy” Faculty Advisor: David Dunand
Daniel will enter the PhD program at MIT in fall 2019, where he plans to pursue research with the Schuh group.
Undergraduate Leadership, Scholarship and Service
Yvonne Chart: A member of the Varsity Fencing team, Yvonne served the materials community as President and Treasurer of the Material Advantage chapter, helping to establish the MatSci mentorship program. Her interest in energy and sustainability manifested as President of the Athletics Sustanability Committee, as an undergraduate researcher in the Barnett group, and an intern at Nanograf. Her immediate post-graduation plans include training for the 2020 Olympics.
2018
Undergraduate Research and Design
Kyle Bushick, for his project “High-throughput exploration of quaternary oxypnictides” Faculty Advisors: Christopher Wolverton
Kyle will pursue his interests in computational materials in the Ph.D. program in Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan in fall 2018.
Undergraduate Leadership, Scholarship and Service
Yakira Mirabito has been an active member and leader in several campus organizations. As co-president of the Northwestern Questbridge Scholars Network, she helped build community and advocate for low-income and first-generation college students at Northwestern. She is an active skier and served as captain of the Northwestern Ski and Snowboard team. She was a board member of the McCormick School of Engineering Office of Professional Development and a member of several professional engineering organizations, including Material Advantage, the Society of Women Engineers and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers. Her future plans are to conduct research in materials and design of sports equipment for safety and injury prevention.
2017
Undergraduate Research and Design
Jake Song, for his project “Dynamics, Mechanics, and Multi-scale Modeling of Polymer Nanostructures”
Faculty Advisors: Sinan Keten and Kenneth Shull.
Jake is a co-author on seven manuscripts (three published). He will pursue his studies of polymers and soft matter as part of the Ph.D. program in Materials Science and Engineering at MIT in fall 2017. Jake is also the recipient of the McCormick 2017 Harold B. Gotaas Undergraduate Research Award.
Undergraduate Leadership, Scholarship and Service
Lauren Kearney a member of the SpaceICE team in the Dunand group worked on the design for the team’s freeze-casting instrumentation that will launch in a NASA mission next year and completed a senior project, “Microstructural Characterization of Ceramic Slurries for Freeze-Casting.” Kearney also traveled to Nicaragua for an alternative spring break to work on water and engineering with public health brigades; she served as the vice president of the MatSci Club and chapter vice president of the Phi Sigma Pi National Honor Society. Most notably, Kearney chose Northwestern for its NROTC (Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps) program, through which she has won national awards and valuable leadership experience. After graduation, when she will also be commissioned as an Ensign in the U.S. Navy, Kearny will be stationed in Japan. She hopes to attend Naval Nuclear Power School and work on a nuclear aircraft carrier.
2016
Undergraduate Research and Design
Theo Gao, for his project “Graphene-Nitrocelluose Inks for Printed Electronics” Faculty Advisor: Mark Hersam.
Theo plans to enter the Ph.D. program in Materials Science and Engineering at Stanford in fall 2016.
Undergraduate Leadership, Scholarship and Service
Norman Luu served as on the board (as secretary) of the Material Advantage Chapter for two years. He has been an active participant in many outreach activities, acting as liaison between Material Advantage and the Materials Research Center, helping to recruit volunteers and coordinate events, as well as running demos. He serves as an advocate to younger students of science and engineering careers at-large and Materials Science and Engineering in particular. He also devotes time to helping his (former) high school debate team. An outstanding researcher, he worked with the Hersam group on the development of graphene-functionalized cathode and anode materials for lithium ion battery applications. He is completing a BS/MS at NU and hopes to pursue a Ph.D. in sustainability and energy-related materials science research.
2015
Undergraduate Research and Design
Leanne Friedrich, for her project “Microstructural and Compositional Control in Chiton Ocelli Lenses” Faculty Advisor: Derk Joester
Leanne was also awarded the 2015 Gotaas Award for her project.
Undergraduate Leadership, Scholarship and Service
Ryan DeBlock served as President and an executive board member of the Material Advantage Chapter, as well as participating as an active member of the MatSci club and SPLASH!NU outreach activities. He also served as a Career Ambassador for Northwestern Career Advancement. As a co-op student, he completed internships at Baxter Healthcare, General Electric and NASA. At NASA he worked on a project related to his senior thesis with Prof. Katherine Faber on molten calcium-‐magnesium-‐aluminosilicate (CMAS) engine deposits, and their influence on protective ceramic coatings for power generation applications.
Ryan was also awarded the 2015 Walter P. Murphy Co-Op Student of the Year Award.
2014
Undergraduate Research and Design
Katie Jaycox, for her project "Direct Ink Write (DIW) 3D-Printing of Ceramic Inks for Biomedical and Extraterrestrial Applications." Faculty adviser: Ramille Shah
Undergraduate Leadership, Scholarship and Service
Rachel Beal, a major in Materials Science in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, who has excelled in the classroom and the research lab where she worked with the Mason group on the La-Ni-GaO phase diagram for solid oxide fuel cells. Rachel served as an undergraduate teaching assistant for MatSci 101, "Modern Materials and Society," as an officer of Phi Sigma Pi National Honor Fraternity, on the executive board of the MatSci Club, and on the editing committee of The Northwestern Flipside. She was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and awarded a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship for graduate study at Stanford.
2013
Undergraduate Research and Design
Cameron Kadleck, for his project "Novel Use of Oxidized CVD Graphene toward Robust, High-Efficiency Organic Solar Cells." Faculty adviser: Mark Hersam
Zhibo Zhao, for his project "Pencil-on-Paper Chemical and Strain Sensors." Faculty adviser: Jiaxing Huang
Undergraduate Leadership, Scholarship and Service
Eric Schwenker, a double-major in Music and Materials Science and Engineering, for his leadership as President of the Material Advantage Chapter; his scholarship as an MSE student, a member of the winning ASM Undergraduate Design Competition Team and of the Sinan Ketan research group where he worked on modelling the mechanical behavior of graphene oxide papers; his service as a teaching assistant for a CAD course and his participation in many community outreach including visits to the Cook County Detention facility and as a member of a well-drilling team in northern Nicaragua.
2012
Undergraduate Research and Design
Aaron Holsteen, for his project “Intrinsic and Extrinsic Mechanical Dissipation within Vanadium Oxide Nanomechanical Resonators around the MIT Transition via Fiber Polarization-Dependent Interferometry.” Faculty advisor: Lincoln Lauhon. Aaron worked on three distinct projects with the Lauhon group and was involved in every aspect of experimentation, from experimental design to construction of equipment, to programming and data analysis and interpretation. He is co-author of papers in ACS Nano and Nano Letters. He will begin the doctoral program in MSE at Stanford in fall 2012.
Undergraduate Leadership, Scholarship and Service
Rongrong Cheacharoen, for her dedication to the MatSci club, as M.E.S.S. coordinator, social chair and club president during 2011-2012 and for her involvement in other campus leadership roles, including Treasurer and Executive Board member of Tau Beta Pi, a member of the Thai Club executive board, and Slivka residential college. Rongrong is a double-major in MSE and physics and is competing a senior project focused on establishing the relationship between oxygen vacancy concentration and domain structure in VO2 nanobeams with the Lauhon group. She will begin the doctoral program in MSE at Stanford in fall 2012.
Scott Grindy, for his exceptional service and leadership as a member of Engineers for a Sustainable World, particularly his service as project manager of the Nicaraguan Wind Turbine project. Scott participated in Co-op at GE Aviation and a summer study abroad of nanoelectronics in Munich. He is completing a senior project with the Wolverton group on identifying systematic errors in the DFT formation energies of a large number of chemical compounds. His work has not only shown how to identify the errors, but has proposed a simple correction that greatly improves the quantitative accuracy of these DFT predictions. He will pursue a PhD in MSE at MIT beginning in fall 2012.
2011
Undergraduate Research and Design
Alvin Tan, for his project "All-Carbon Composites for Energy Applications" with the Huang group.
Undergraduate Leadership, Scholarship and Service
Ryan Brock completed BS/MS degrees in MSE, and conducted his senior project and MS-thesis research with the Hersam group. Ryan served as President of Tau Beta Pi and Slivka Residential College, and was active as coordinator and participant in the M.E.S.S. outreach project sponsored by the MatSci club.