Awards and Accolades News

  • Jan 4
    2016
    When that middle-of-the-night call finally came, it was Alan Heeger’s wife who answered the phone. She turned to him, he recalled, and no sooner had she sleepily announced, “Someone from Sweden is on the line,” than Heeger himself came awake and shouted, “Don’t hang up!” It had been years since his name was first bandied about as a contender for the Nobel Prize. As he... read more »
  • Dec 24
    2015
    Prof. Chris Palmstrøm received the 2015 Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) Innovator Award at the North American MBE conference held this past October in Mayan Riviera, Mexico. Prof. Palmstrøm was honored “for innovations in MBE growth of dissimilar materials and in-situ interface formation studies.” To be recognized as an MBE Innovator, an individual’s work must have... read more »
  • Dec 18
    2015
    Four UC Santa Barbara faculty members, three from the Materials Department, have been elected to the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) for 2015. Recognized for their “highly prolific spirit of invention,” professors John Bowers (Materials), Craig Hawker (Materials), Umesh Mishra and Galen Stucky (Materials) are among the newest fellows elected by the organization. They... read more »
  • Dec 18
    2015
    Alstria office REIT-AG, one of Germany’s largest listed commercial real estate companies, has made a gift to UCSB to support research in organic solar cells.  John van Oost, former Deputy Chairman of Alstria and now Managing Partner and co-founder at Fluxus Ventures, recognized that organic solar cells have potential in the area of building integrated solar and initiated... read more »
  • Nov 23
    2015
    Craig Hawker, a UC Santa Barbara professor of Materials, has been named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He is one of 43 new members elected to the organization’s Chemistry section, and is recognized “for revolutionizing materials research through the development of powerful synthetic methods and strategies for molecularly... read more »
  • Nov 11
    2015
    A new era for advanced materials When UCSB Materials Professors Anton Van der Ven and Tresa Pollock accepted the invitation to the White House for the kickoff of the Materials Genome Initiative (MGI) in 2012, it was clear that a new era for Advanced Materials had reached the national agenda. In the intervening years, a broad array of federal and industrial programs aimed... read more »
  • Nov 6
    2015
    Professor Rachel Segalman was recently elected Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS). Prof. Segalman was nominated by the Division of Polymer Physics for “pioneering contributions to the understanding of conjugated, polypeptoid, and ion-containing polymers and co-polymers.” To be elected as a Fellow of APS, a candidate must have exceptional contributions to... read more »
  • Oct 19
    2015
    Four faculty from the UCSB Materials Department were named by mass media company Thomson Reuters to its Highly Cited Researchers 2015 list. Professors Alan Heeger, Craig Hawker, Guillermo Bazan, and Arthur C. Gossard are recognized by Reuters for their published work having a major impact on their fields of research. Highly Cited Researchers 2015 recognizes scientists... read more »
  • Oct 16
    2015
    Assistant Professor Stephen Wilson, recently named a 2015-2016 Hellman Fellow, will receive support from the Hellman Fellows Fund for new research addressing the role of electronic correlations in transition metal oxides being explored as battery materials.   Prof. Wilson’s current research focuses on materials with complex electronic structure that have promise for... read more »
  • Jun 30
    2015
    Professor Larry Coldren received the International Conference on Indium Phosphide & Related Materials (IPRM) Award in recognition of his leading contributions to the development of InP-based semiconductor lasers and photonic integrated circuits for optical fiber communications. The award was presented on June 30th at the 2015 Compound Semiconductor Week, held at UC... read more »
  • Feb 19
    2015
    The editors of the Journal of Polymer Science and the Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering (PMSE) Division of the ACS are delighted to announce that the JPS Innovation Award winner for 2015 is Rachel Segalman. The award recognizes Rachel for her innovative work, such as unraveling the principles underlying the processing /structure/property relationships in block... read more »
  • Jan 8
    2015
    Robert McMeeking, Professor of materials and of mechanical engineering at UC Santa Barbara, has been appointed inaugural recipient of the Tony Evans Chair in Structural Materials. McMeeking’s appointment recognizes his outstanding achievements in mechanics and materials, including nonlinear fracture mechanics, transformation toughening of ceramics, mechanics of composite... read more »
  • Jan 6
    2015
    Professor Shuji Nakamura has been selected for the 2015 Charles Stark Draper Prize of the National Academy of Engineering. Along with Isamu Akasaki, M. George Craford, Russell Dupuis and Nick Holonyak Jr. the prize is being awarded for “the invention, development, and commercialization of materials and processes for light-emitting diodes (LEDs).” The $500,000 annual award... read more »
  • Dec 1
    2014
    Professor Ram Seshadri has been elected to Fellowship of the American Physical Society for his significant contributions: "to developing structure-composition-property relations in functional inorganic oxides, to the understanding of the role of lone-pair electrons in polar and ferroic behavior, to frustrated magnetism and frustrated ferroics, and to novel phosphors for... read more »
  • Oct 6
    2014
    The 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to Shuji Nakamura, professor of materials and of electrical and computer engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and two others. The prize is for the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes, which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources, and is shared with Isamu Akasaki of... read more »