Graduate student receives award for excellence in nano research

Graduate student receives award for excellence in nano research

Rice graduate student Yuhuang Wang is one of two Texas graduate students to be awarded the first Graduate Student Research Fellowships, recognizing excellence in nanotechnology research with potential applications in life sciences and/or energy, from the Nanotechnology Foundation of Texas (NFT).

Wang received the David G. Nance Award for Outstanding Graduate Research in Nanotechnology. Tobias Hanrath of The University of Texas at Austin received the George Kozmetsky Award for Outstanding Graduate Research in Nanotechnology. The doctoral students, who each received $5,000, were nominated by professors from their universities and were chosen from a field of 18 nominees at eight universities.

Wang was nominated for the award by Richard Smalley, University Professor, the Gene and Norman Hackerman Professor of Chemistry and professor of physics, who said, ”Yuhuang is distinguished by a combination of traits: his readiness to undertake extremely difficult technical challenges, his energy and persistence in pursuing them, his speed in assimilating new technologies and his creativity in applying the technologies to solve new problems.”

Conrad Masterson, chief executive officer of NFT, said, ”Of the six finalists, Rice had three and there was one each for The University of Texas at Austin, The University of Texas at Dallas and the University of Houston. The difference in the evaluations of the winners by the 19-person scientific review board was two points out of about 550. We had some great candidates, which is a credit to all of the universities.”

The awards recognize work in the fields related to nanotechnology, the only field of science where Texas has a leadership position around the world. NFT established the two awards to recognize excellence in nanotechnology research. The awards include grants for stipend, travel, lab supplies, books, equipment and other direct costs associated with candidates’ projects related to nanotechnology. The winners will also have an opportunity to address the 2004 Nano Summit.

”With these awards, Nanotechnology Foundation of Texas is helping to enable the next wave of research,” Masterson said. ”The awards will recognize the great work being done in Texas universities and help attract the brightest young people in the nation to conduct nanotechnology research and make groundbreaking discoveries. We’re pleased for the opportunity to recognize our future heroes in nanotechnology research who are solving complex problems in innovative ways.”

NFT is a publicly funded research initiative founded in 2001 to accelerate nanotechnology research in Texas by recruiting the most qualified graduate students and postdoctoral researchers into the field of nanotechnology and providing funding to help current nanotechnology researchers expand their fields of investigation. NFT also sponsors annual nano summit conferences to encourage collaboration among Texas nanotechnology researchers and to educate both Texans and those outside the state about the research being done in Texas to develop broader funding sources for Texas research.