Student & Postdoc Honors News

  • Sep 24
    2024
    Lucas Erich, a second-year materials PhD student at UC Santa Barbara, has received a prestigious NASA Space Technology Graduate Research Opportunities (NSTGRO) Fellowship. Sponsored by NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, the NSTGRO program supports researchers pursuing ideas that show significant potential to contribute to the agency’s goal of creating innovative... read more »
  • Sep 24
    2024
    Two materials graduate students, Joshua Baston and Griffin Tong (pictured left to right), have won a significant national award to pursue their respective doctoral research projects. “This is a very competitive award, so we are proud of these students,” said Leila J. Rupp, Interim Anne and Michael Towbes Graduate Dean. “We also applaud their faculty advisors, who do the... read more »
  • Jun 10
    2024
    Chiyo McMullin, a mechanical engineering undergraduate and undergraduate researcher in Tresa Pollock's research lab was one of the recipients of the College of Engineering’s 2024 Tirrell Award for Distinction in Undergraduate Research. The annual award, named in honor of the college’s former dean, Matthew Tirrell, recognizes a graduating senior for showing excellence and... read more »
  • May 27
    2024
    The 2024 STLE Annual Meeting & Exhibition took place in Minneapolis, MN, in May, showcasing advancements in tribology and lubrication engineering. Professor Angela Pitenis was recognized with the Early Career Award – Academic Professional Level for her exceptional contributions to the field. This prestigious award, presented annually to one assistant professor, aims... read more »
  • Apr 30
    2024
    Mark Turiansky, a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Van de Walle Computational Materials Group, was selected for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet and learn from a host of Nobel Laureates this summer in Germany. He is among 650 young scientists from throughout the world who will experience and contribute to the unique atmosphere of the 73rd Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting... read more »
  • Jul 19
    2022
    Materials Ph.D. Student Lauren Poole was recognized with an APS Early Career Speaker Award for her presentation at the 2022 Biennial APS meeting on Shock Compression of Condensed Matter. The meeting was held in Anaheim, CA from July 10 to July 15. Lauren’s talk was entitled “Dynamic mechanical behavior of co-continuous metal composites". Lauren is a PhD student in... read more »
  • Oct 19
    2021
    UCSB Graduate Students earn DOE awards to conduct their research at national labs Two UC Santa Barbara graduate students in the College of Engineering have received opportunities to conduct research at prestigious national laboratories operated by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Eli Zoghlin and Kamyar Parto are among 65 students nationwide selected... read more »
  • Sep 7
    2021
    Juan Chamorro, a postdoctoral researcher in UC Santa Barbara’s Materials Department, has received a Mathematical and Physical Sciences Ascending Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (MPS-Ascend) from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The prestigious fellowship amounts to $100,000 per year for up to three years. The program supports outstanding future scientists who will... read more »
  • Sep 1
    2021
    Mikayla Barry, a graduate student in Prof. Rachel Segalman's group, recently presented her work at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Advanced Light Source (LBNL ALS) to US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.   Mikayla is researching the properties of advanced membranes for water purification using the ALS Ambient Pressure X-ray Photoelectron Spectrometer to... read more »
  • Aug 20
    2021
    The Department is happy to announce the first recipients of the Bright Horizon Global Foundation Materials Department Service Awards. These annual awards recognize students and post-doctoral researchers within the Materials Department for contributions that help to improve our sense of community and to assist in the educational mission beyond expectations. We are... read more »
  • May 24
    2021
    Materials graduate student Caroline Reilly has been selected as a 2021 recipient of the University Award of Distinction, given to students who have contributed greatly to the quality of life by giving unselfish service to others within a particular area. She will receive the honor at the Virtual University Awards Ceremony on June 6th at 3:00PM. Congratulations Caroline!
  • May 11
    2021
    A CATALYST OF CHANGE Materials PhD student Julia Zuo receives Dixon-Levy Service Award from UCSB’s Graduate Student Association for her efforts to improve graduate student life Read More MEETING OF THE MINDS George Degen and Samuel Teicher are among thirty young scientists from the University of California invited to an annual meeting with dozens of Nobel Laureates... read more »
  • Mar 23
    2021
    Mitchell Bordelon in the Wilson group was honored with the Outstanding Dissertation in Magnetism Award from GMAG today. GMAG is the topical group focused on magnetism in the American Physical Society, and they recognize one to two students per year with this award. Mitchell's dissertation work titled "Magnetic Frustration and Quantum Disorder in Jeff=1/2 Lanthanide-based... read more »
  • Nov 2
    2020
    Three UC Santa Barbara scientists are among the one hundred fifty women nationwide who have been invited to the 2020 Rising Stars in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) Workshop. Esmat Farzana, a postdoctoral researcher in the Materials Department, Yating Wan, a postdoc in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department... read more »
  • Jun 4
    2020
    Victoria Christensen shares her experiences and suggestions on how to make the most of life under the work-at-home conditions generated by the Covid-19 pandemic in a recent piece written for the Ceramics Bulletin. She addresses not only handling coursework and research for an experimentalist with no access to labs, but also taking advantage of the opportunities to enrich... read more »
  • Apr 2
    2020
    The Materials Department would like to acknowledge our 2020 Graduate Student Fellowship Awardees The Department congratulates our NSF Graduate Research Fellowship recipients and those who received honorable mentions.   Department Chair, Prof. Michael Chabinyc says, “The NSF fellowships recognize the research abilities of our students as well as their plans for educating... read more »
  • Mar 6
    2020
    Nicole Michelfelder-Schauser, a graduate student in the Segalman and Seshadri groups, has received the 2020 Frank J. Padden Jr. Award. The Frank J. Padden, Jr. Award recognizes a graduate student for "Excellence in Polymer Physics Research". This is the highest honor bestowed by the Division of Polymer Physics of the American Physical Society. Nicole was selected for her... read more »
  • Mar 5
    2020
    Two UC Santa Barbara Materials PhD students will have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet and learn from more than 40 Nobel Laureates this summer in Germany. Nicole Michelfelder-Schauser and Andrew Rowberg are among 660 young scientists from 100 countries selected to participate in the 70th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting. This year’s meeting is dedicated to... read more »
  • Jan 10
    2020
    Dr. Xie Zhang, a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Van de Walle group, has been selected to receive the 2019 Early Career Award in High Performance Scientific Computing from the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC). The award recognizes early-career scientists who make high-impact and innovative contributions to science. Xie Zhang has produced... read more »
  • Sep 24
    2019
    University  of  California,  Santa  Barbara  graduate  student  awarded  Department  of  Energy      fellowship Lauren Smith, a doctoral student in Materials Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara, has been awarded a Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration Stewardship Science Graduate Fellowship (DOE NNSA SSGF) to support her research... read more »
  • Aug 19
    2019
    The Materials Department would like to acknowledge our 2019 Graduate Student Fellowship Awardees     Virginia Collier (NSF and NDSEG) Jacob Ewing (NSF) Steven Gomez (NSF) Eliovardo Gonzalez-Correa (NSF) Nolan Hendricks (SMART) Alexander Lygo (NSF) Caelin Muir (NSTRF) Tyler Pardue (NSF) Elias Sebti (NSF) Lauren Smith (DOE NNSA SSGF) Vincent Wu (NSF) Oey Yuzki (NSF) Julia... read more »
  • May 22
    2019
    Virginia Collier has been awarded both the 2019 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship and the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship, and has accepted the NDSEG fellowship. Her research focuses on the coupling of chemistry and mechanics, using computational techniques to understand the behavior of high-temperature materials in jet engines. As a... read more »
  • Mar 21
    2019
    Two UC Santa Barbara Materials PhD students will have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet and learn from more than 40 Nobel Laureates this summer in Germany. Joshua Bocarsly and Elayne Thomas, both fourth-year graduate students, are among 580 young scientists from 88 countries selected to participate in the 69th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting from June 31 to July 5.... read more »
  • Jul 16
    2018
    Materials Ph.D. Student Andrew Polonsky was recognized as one of three outstanding student lecturers at the 4th International Congress on 3D Materials Science.  This symposium was held in Helsingor, Denmark from June 10 - 13, 2018.  Andrew’s talk was entitled “Processing-Microstructure Relationships in Isolated Melt Pools of Electron Beam Melted Inconel 718”. Polonsky is... read more »
  • May 3
    2017
    The UCSB Materials Department congratulates four Ph.D. graduate students for recently being named 2017 National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellows.  Rhys Kennard, Brandon Leu, Sean Murray, and Claire Weaver are first years in the Materials Ph.D. program.  Upon receiving the NDSEG Fellowship, Claire  Weaver said, "I am so proud of the UCSB Materials... read more »