Smalley-Curl Institute honors students’ research at summer colloquium

Awards were given to students for presentations and posters at the 2021 Smalley-Curl Institute Summer Research Colloquium at Duncan Hall. Photo by Laura Livingston/Smalley-Curl Institute)

Student and postdoctoral researchers earned prizes for the best presentations and posters at the Smalley-Curl Institute’s seventh Summer Research Colloquium Aug. 13 in Duncan Hall. More than 150 students, postdoctoral researchers, faculty and visitors participated in the event, which included 20 oral presentations and 52 poster presentations. For details, visit https://sci.rice.edu/colloquium.

Graduate student oral presentations

Platinum award ($300) — Lin Yuan (Chemistry), “Synergistic plasmonic photocatalysis on Al-Pd-Fe trimetallic nanodisks.”

Gold award ($250) — Aaron Bayles (Chemistry), “Al@TiO2 Core-Shell Structures for Hot Carrier Photocatalysis.”

Silver award ($200) — Grant Gorman (Physics), “Laser-Induced Fluorescence Imaging of a Magnetically Confined, Spin-Polarized Ultracold Neutral Plasma.”

Bronze award ($100) — Jaime Moya (APP/Physics) “Topological and Anomalous Hall effects driven by correlations in a square-net centrosymmetric Eu-based compound.”

Undergraduate poster session awards

Platinum award ($300) — Vedant Patel (Nanotechnology-Enabled Water Treatment/Research Experiences for Undergraduates program), “Electrothermal Membrane Distillation for Minimum or Zero Liquid Discharge.”

Gold award ($250) — Andrea Maya (Nanotechnology-Enabled Water Treatment/Research Experiences for Undergraduates program), “Removal of Arsenic from Water Using Fe-nanoparticles impregnated in Fe-Crosslinked Chitosan Beads.”

Silver award ($200) — Alyssa Moon (R-STEM Nano Research Experiences for Undergraduates), “Fabrication, Characterization and Transfer of 2D Materials for THz Spectroscopy.”

Silver award ($200) — Victory Amos-Nwankwo (Nanotechnology-Enabled Water Treatment/Research Experiences for Undergraduates program), “Selective Electrosorption for Scaling and Fouling Control.”

Graduate/postdoctoral poster session awards 

Platinum award ($300) — Lin Yuan (Chemistry), “Synergistic plasmonic photocatalysis on Al-Pd-Fe trimetallic nanodisks.”

Gold award ($250) — Aaron Bayles (Chemistry), “Al@TiO2 Core-Shell Structures for Hot Carrier Photocatalysis.”

Silver award ($200) — Grant Gorman (Physics), “Laser-Induced Fluorescence Imaging of a Magnetically Confined, Spin-Polarized Ultracold Neutral Plasma.”

Bronze award ($100) — Jaime Moya (Applied Physics Program/Physics), “Topological and Anomalous Hall effects driven by correlations in a square-net centrosymmetric Eu-based compound.”

Other awards

Special Jury award — Riya Narayan (High school/Materials Science and NanoEngineering), “Graphene-Based Supercapacitor Electrodes.”

Special Jury award — Rachel Jin (High school/Materials Science and NanoEngineering), “Development of metal dichalcogenide coated acupuncture needles for NO biosensing.”

People’s Choice award ($100) — Andrea Fabila (Mechanical Engineering), “Thermal Transistor.”

People’s Choice award ($100) — Mary Bajomo (Chemistry), “Streamlined identification of PAHs/PACs in environmental samples using ultracompact spectroscopy platforms and machine learning strategies.”