Rice Quantum Institute rewards students for posters, presentations

Rice students and postdoctoral researchers displayed and discussed their posters at the Rice Quantum Institute's summer colloquium.

Judges at the Rice Quantum Institute (RQI) summer colloquium awarded undergraduate and graduate students prizes for their presentations and posters Aug. 2 at Duncan Hall.

The annual event brought together hundreds of students and faculty for an overview of research in the schools of Natural Sciences and Engineering at Rice. The award winners are listed below.

Oral presentation awards

RQI Award ($500): Graduate student Lisa Brown for “Surface-Enhanced Infrared Absorption (SEIRA) Spectroscopy Using Fan-Shaped Antennas with Bull’s-eye Gratings.”

Halliburton Award ($250): Graduate student Lydia Kisley for “Super-Resolution Imaging by Motion Blur Points Accumulation for Imaging in Nanoscale Topography.”

Graphene Platform Award ($250): Graduate student Jana Olson for “The Plasmonic Pixel: Polarization Switching of Nanorod Plasmons.”

National Instruments Award of LabView Student License: Graduate student David Tam for “Quantum Billiards: Kicking, Ricocheting, Splitting and Recombination of a Bose-Einstein Condensate Soliton.”

Undergraduate poster session awards

Kuraray Award ($500): Hanszen College senior Dante Zakhidov for “Edge-Enriched Graphitic Anodes by KOH Activation for Higher Rate Capability Lithium Ion Batteries.”

NanoJapan Prize ($500): RQI visiting student Phong Vo for “Superconductivity in Doped Sc-In Systems.”

NanoJapan Prize ($250): RQI visiting student Luke White for “Controlling the ‘Stickiness’ and Electronic Properties of Graphene by Doping.”

National Instruments Award of LabView Student License: Sid Richardson College junior Srividvatha Sridhar for “Enhanced Field Emission Properties from Carbon Nanotube Arrays Synthesized Using Inconel.”

Graduate poster session awards

Smalley Institute Award ($500): Graduate student Qi Zhang for “Coherent Terahertz Magneto-Spectroscopy of Ultrahigh-Mobility Two-Dimensional Electron Gases.”

RQI Award ($250): Graduate student Fangfang Wen for “Plasmon Transmutation: Inducing New Modes in Nanoclusters by Adding Dielectric Nanoparticles.”

Micron Award ($500): Graduate student Sergio Dominguez-Medina for “Preventing Nanoparticle Aggregation Under Harsh Environmental Conditions with a Protein Monolayer.”

Smalley Institute Award ($500): Graduate student Navid Sakhavan for “Pillared Boron Nitride: Mechano- and Thermo-Mutable Anisotropy of a Three-Dimensional Reticulated Nanostructure.”