Smalley-Curl Institute honors top posters, presentations at colloquium

Rice students’ posters fill the floor at Duncan Hall. Photo by Hussain Hijazi/Pella Gallerie

More than $7,000 in prizes was awarded to graduate and undergraduate students judged to have the best presentations and posters at the Smalley-Curl Institute’s second annual Summer Research Colloquium Aug. 12 in Duncan Hall. The winners were chosen from more than 75 graduate and postdoctoral students and more than 50 undergraduate students who participated in the program.

Graduate student oral presentations  

Rice University Office of Research Award ($1,000): David Renard for “Solvent-Directed Growth of Aluminum Nanocrystals.”

John J. Fannaly Innovative Research Fund Award ($500): Liyang Lu for “4-D Compressive Imaging for Hyperspectral Video Microscopy.”

John J. Fannaly Innovative Research Fund Award ($500): Hossein Robatjazi for “Plasmon-Induced Selective CO2 Hydrogenation on Earth-Abundant Aluminum-Copper Oxide Antenna-Reactor Complex.”

Rice physics and astronomy graduate student Eva Jin explains her team’s work at the SCI Colloquium. Photo by Hussain Hijazi/Pella Gallerie

John J. Fannaly Innovative Research Fund Award ($500): Mehbuba Tanzid for “Absorption-Enhanced Imaging Through Scattering Media.”

John J. Fannaly Innovative Research Fund Award ($500): Yu Zheng for “Displacement Kinetics of Single-Stranded DNA Wrapped Around Carbon Nanotubes.”

Undergraduate posters 

Altos Photonics – Light Conversion Award ($250): Haihao Liu for “Hidden Symmetries in One-Dimensional Photonic Crystals.”

Advantest Award ($250): Chandni Rana for “Enhancing the Detection Sensitivity of Terahertz Spectroscopy for Biomolecules Using Metasurfaces.”

Micron Award ($250): Grant Stec for “Multicolor Electrochromic Devices with Molecular Plasmonics.”

Lake Shore Cryotronics Award ($250): Youssef Tobah for “Terahertz Emission and Detection in Graphene-Based Heterostructures.”

Graduate poster session awards (Session A) 

Altos Photonics – Light Conversion Award ($250): Benjamin Clark for “The Catalyst Matters Most: Shape-Controlled Synthesis of Aluminum Nanocrystals.”

Altos Photonics – Light Conversion Award ($250): Dayne Swearer for “Heterometallic Antenna-Reactor Nanostructures for Photocatalysis.”

Altos Photonics – Light Conversion USA Award ($250): De Luo for “Formation of Bright Matter-Wave Soliton Trains.”

Dow Chemical Award ($250): Gladys Lopez-Silva for “Enhancing Lithium-Sulfur Batteries with Hybrid Carbon Nanomaterials.”

Dow Chemical Award ($250): Jennifer Burnett for “Classification of Circulating Malaria-Infected Red Blood Cells Versus Phagocytes Using in Vivo Microscopy of Hemozoin.”

Lake Shore Cryotronics Award ($250): Lizanne Nilewski for “Carbon Nanomaterials and Corresponding Small Molecule Analogs for Biomedical Applications.”

Micron Award ($250): Luke Henderson for “MRI-Active Au Nanomatryoskhas.”

Graduate poster session awards (Session B) 

PlanarTech Award ($250): Maria Kochugaeva for “How Conformational Dynamic Influences the Protein Search on DNA.”

Rice Alumni Engineering Association Award ($250): Patricia Bilbao Ergueta for “Unified Spin Model for Magnetic Excitations in Iron Chalcogenides.”

Rice University Center for Engineering Leadership Award ($250): Pelham Keahey for “Differential Structured Illumination Microendoscopy for Improving in Vivo Detection of Cervical Cancer.”

Rice University School of Engineering Award ($250): Rashad Baiyasi for “Characterization and Fitting of Complex Fluorescence Point-Spread Functions.”

Rice University School of Natural Sciences Award ($250): Rodrigo Salvatierra Li for “Dendrite Suppression Using Graphene-Carbon Nanotubes Electrodes.”

Shell Award ($250): Roger Ding for “Progress Toward Isotope-Dependent Optical Trapping of Strontium.”

Shell Award ($250): Sudeshna Chatterjee for “Understanding Activation-Deactivation Mechanism of NMDA Receptors Using Single Molecule Fret.”