Awards & Honors
August 2022 | IRG2 Co-Lead, Nicole Steinmetz named 2022 BMES Fellow
IRG2 Co-lead, Nicole Steinmetz was named a 2022 Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) Fellow. The BMES Grade of Fellow is a professional distinction granted by the Board of Directors to a BMES member. This individual has demonstrated impactful achievements and has made significant contributions to the biomedical engineering community. They also have considerable leadership within their field of interest and served within the Society.
July 2022 | IRG2 Faculty, Lisa Poulikakos awarded the 2022 Beckman Young Investigator Award!
IRG2 SEED Faculty, Lisa Poulikakos was named a recipient of the 2022 Beckman Young Investigator Award. The Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation announced the selection of its 2022 class of Beckman Young Investigator Awardees from U.S. colleges and universities. The awardees exemplify the Foundation’s mission of supporting the most promising young faculty members in the early stages of their academic careers in the chemical and life sciences, particularly to foster the invention of methods, instruments, and materials that will open new avenues of research in science.
July 2022 | Dong Le and Baharak Sayahpour receive the 2022 ASM International Abe Hurlich Award
IRG1 trainees, Dong Le and Baharak Sayahpour received the the 2022 American Society of Materials (ASM) International Abe Hurlich Award (the San Diego chapter)! The ASM International is an association of material-centric engineers and scientists dedicated to informing, educating, and connecting the materials community to solve problems and stimulate innovation around the world. Each year, the San Diego chapter of ASM International presents the Abe Hurlich Award to an exemplary student of materials science. The award was established in memory of Abe Hurlich, a member and past-chair (1960) of the chapter, and past-president of ASM International (1977).
April 2022 | Rachel Myers, 2021 REU Participant named recipient of Goldwater Scholarship 2022-23
Rachel Myers, a 2021 UC San Diego MRSEC REU participant, for her 2022 Goldwater Scholarship award. The Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program is designed to provide the United States with “a continuing source of highly qualified scientists, mathematicians, and engineers” to move the nation forward. More than 1,200 students applied from over 425 institutions across the country this year. The program selected a total of 417 scholars to receive Goldwater scholarships for 2022-23.
April 2022 | Distinguished Professor and Director of UC San Diego MRSEC and IMDD Michael Sailor recipient of the Leigh T. Canham Award
Dr. Sailor, Director of UC San Diego MRSEC and IMDD, is awarded Leigh T Canham Award in Porous Semiconductors Science and Technology. He gave the Canham Award Lecture a the Porous Semiconductors Science and Technology International Conference in Camaiore, Italy. Selected by the International Advisory Board of the Porous Semiconductors Science and Technology International Conference, this award recognizes the recipient for their contributions and career achievements in the science and technology of porous semiconductors.
March 2022 | Professor Shaochen Chen named recipient of NSF BRITE Fellow Grant
Dr. Shaochen Chen, IRG2 SEED Faculty, is awarded NSF Boosting Research Ideas for Transformative and Equitable Advances in Engineering (BRITE Award) Fellow Grant for Intelligent Nanoscale 3D Biomanufacturing Towards Human-on-a-Chip. As Principal Investigator Prof. Chen will create a nanoscale biomanufacturing platform powered by artificial intelligence that can serve as a functional, three-dimensional model of human tissues, organs and systems. This “human-on-a-chip” could transform regenerative medicine and tools for disease modeling, drug screening, environmental studies and other applications.
February 2022 | Adam Caparco awarded NIFA postdoc grant
Adam Caparco, an IRG2 postdoc trainee, is awareded NIFA postdoc grant for $225,000 for two years, with an option to apply for third year of funding.
February 2022 | Professor Darren Lipomi awarded NSF BRITE Award
Dr. Darren Lipomi, IRG2 Faculty, is awarded NSF Boosting Research Ideas for Transformative and Equitable Advances in Engineering (BRITE Award).
January 2022 | Professor Shirley Meng, a UC San Diego MRSEC Affiliated Faculty, elected as a 2021 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
Prof. Meng was one of six UC San Diego Experts Elected AAAS Fellows in 2021, honored for her "innovative and original discovery of interfacial sciences in energy storage materials that has led to improved battery technologies." Her research group – the Laboratory for Energy Storage and Conversion (LESC) – focuses on functional nano- and micro-scale materials for energy storage and conversion.
December 2021 | Andrea Monroy Borrego, UC San Diego MRSEC Affiliate Trainee, won UC MEXUS Graduate Student Fellowship
Andrea Monroy Borrego, UC San Diego MRSEC affiliate trainee is named a recipient of the UC MEXUS Graduate Student Fellowship, a five-year fellowship. Andrea is working on using plant viral vectors as Engineered Living Materials (ELMs) for faming of biologics for pharmaceutical industry, in low resource areas and in space.
November 2021 | Reagan Beers, UC San Diego MRSEC Affiliate Trainee awarded 2021-22 Physical Sciences Dean's Undergraduate Award for Excellence
Reagan Beers, UC San Diego MRSEC affiliate trainee is named a recipient of the 2021-22 Physical Sciences Dean's Undergraduate Award for Excellence from Dean Boggs and the Division of Physical Sciences at UC San Diego.
November 2021 | Rachel Myers from UC San Diego MRSEC REU 2021 program awarded at ABRCMS 2021
Rachel Myers, UC San Diego MRSEC 2021 Research Experience Undergraduate (REU) Program from University of Baltimore County has been awarded for her presentation at the 2021 Annual Biomedical Research Conference For Minority Students.
August 2021 | Professor Jinhye Bae awarded ACS Petroleum Research Fund DNI Award
Dr. Jinhye Bae, IRG2 Faculty, awarded the American Chemical Society (ACS) Petroleum Research Fund Doctorial New Investigator (DNI) Award. The DNI grants program aims to promote the careers of young faculty by supporting of high scientific, and to enhance the career opportunities of their undergraduate/ graduate students, and postdoctoral associates through the research experience.
April 2021 | Professor Akif Tezcan awarded Guggenheim Fellowship
Akif Tezcan, Professor at the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry at UC San Diego, and UC San Diego MRSEC IRG1 Affiliated Faculty has been awarded a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship.
March 2021 | Professor Shirley Meng selected to the Class of 2021 Materials Research Society Fellows
Shirley Meng, Professor at the Department of Nanoengineering at UC San Diego, a Director of the Institute for Materials Discovery & Design, and UC San Diego MRSEC Facilities and External Relations Lead, has been selected to the Class of 2021 Materials Research Society Fellows.
March 2021 | Professor Jinhye Bae awarded 2021 KIChE President Young Investigator Award
Dr. Jinhye Bae from IRG2 has been selected by the US Chapter of the Korean Institute of Chemical Engineers (KIChE) as the recipient of the 2021 KIChE President Young Investigator Award.
March 2021 | Professor Nicole Steinmetz selected a Fellow of the International Association of Advanced Materials
Professor at the Department of Nanoengineering at UC San Diego, and the UC San Diego MRSEC IRG2 Co-Lead, Nicole Steinmetz, was honored to become a Fellow of the International Association of Advanced Materials in recognition of her contribution to "Advancement of Materials to Global Excellence".
February 2021 | Professor Alex Frañó named 2021 Cottrell Scholar Award
Research Corporation for Science Advancement has named 25 outstanding teacher-scholars in chemistry, physics, and astronomy as recipients of its 2021 Cottrell Scholar Awards. Alex Frañó, Professor at the Department of Physics at the University of California San Diego, and a MRSEC-affiliated faculty was among this year's recipients. Read the full story here.
December 2020 | Professors Shirley Meng and Seth Cohen named in 2020 List of Highly Cited Researchers
Professor of Nanoengineering, and a MRSEC Facilities/External Relations Lead, Shirley Meng, and Professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry, Seth Cohen, MRSEC IRG1-Affiliated Faculty, were among 52 professors and researchers at UC San Diego named in the prestigious list of Highly Cited Researchers in 2020. Researchers earned this distinction by producing multiple publications that rank in the top 1% by citations in their field over the past 11 years. Read the full story here.