Smalley-Curl Institute rewards top science presenters

Winners at this year’s SCI Transdisciplinary Symposium, from left: Priscilla Dias da Silva, Gladys Anahi Lopez Silva, Seyed Sajadi, Ian Kinstlinger, Melia Bonomo, Mai Tran and Daniel Gonzales. Not pictured are Kyle Smith, Yiyuan Yin and Yu Zheng. Photo by Michelle Downey

Ten Rice University graduate students and postdoctoral researchers won awards in the Smalley-Curl Institute (SCI) Transdisciplinary Symposium Feb. 9.

The winning presenters received $500 travel awards.

The 39 entrants represented the departments of Bioengineering, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Chemistry, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Materials Science and NanoEngineering, and Physics and Astronomy and the Applied Physics Program.

Participants presented short talks on their current research to peers, faculty and staff.

The winners are:

Melia Bonomo (Applied Physics) for “Predicting Influenza H3N2 Vaccine Effectiveness from Evolution of the Dominant Epitope.”

Daniel Gonzales (Applied Physics) for “Whole-Brain Imaging of Spontaneous Sleep-Wake Transitions.”

Ian Kinstlinger (Bioengineering) for “Volumetric Spatial Mapping of Cell Metabolism in Model Tissues With Embedded Hierarchically Branched Vascular Networks.”

Gladys Anahi Lopez Silva (Chemistry) for “Lithium Metal Batteries by Ejecting Lithium From Carbon Nanotubes.”

Seyed Sajadi (Materials Science and NanoEngineering) for “Multi-Scale Geometric Design Principles Applied To 3-D Printed Schwarzites.”

Kyle Smith (Chemistry) for “Circular Differential Scattering of Plasmonic Pinwheels.”

Mai Tran (Materials Science and NanoEngineering) for “Going Green by Going Blue: Recycling Li-Ion Batteries by Extracting Cobalt Using Deep Eutectic Solvents.”

Yiyuan (Ben) Yin (Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering) for “Charge-Assembled Fluorescent Gold Microcapsules as a Chromium (VI) Sensor.”

Yu Zheng (Chemistry) for “Tailoring the Properties of Single-Wall Carbon Nanotube Samples Through Structure-Selective Photochemistry.”

Priscilla Dias da Silva (Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering) received the “Best Participation” award from SCI.