It is with great pleasure that we can announce that the recipients of the inaugural AAAFM-Nakamura Award are Professor Chad A. Mirkin and Professor John A. Rogers. The AAAFM-Nakamura Award (named after the Nobel Prize winner Shuji Nakamura) is a prestigious prize conferred on an outstanding, dynamic researcher who has made significant contributions and whose work shows exceptional innovation in the field functional material. The awards will be presented at the 2nd AAAFM-UCLA Conference on Functional Materials, which will be held in University California, Los Angeles, 19-22August 2019.
Chad Mirkin is awarded AAAFM-Nakamura Award for his contributions to nanoscale functional materials and the commercial products and process that are based upon them, including the invention and development of spherical nucleic acids (SNAs), and cantilever-free, scanning probe-based and 3D printing methodologies. Dr. Chad A. Mirkin is the Director of the International Institute for Nanotechnology and the George B. Rathmann Prof. of Chemistry, Prof. of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Prof. of Biomedical Engineering, Prof. of Materials Science & Engineering, and Prof. of Medicine at Northwestern University. The chemical structures, tools, methods, and materials developed by Mirkin have resulted in over 740 publications (Google Scholar H-index 168; over 142,700 total citations), over 1,100 patent applications (over 330 issued), and over 2,000 products. He has founded multiple thriving companies, all which are leading the way in making and exploring functional materials and commercializing products used around the globe including Exicure (XCUR), TERA-print, and Azul 3D. Mirkin is one of the most cited and highly decorated researchers in the field of materials chemistry (e.g., Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researcher, Citation Laureate (2013; a Nobel Prize predictor), and Most Cited Chemist in the World (2009, 2010)). The breadth of impact of Mirkin’s discoveries are virtually unrivaled. He is one of very few individuals to be elected to all three branches of the US National Academies (NAS, NAE, NAM), and he is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Chemical Society, the Materials Research Society, and the National Academy of Inventors.
John A. Rogers is awarded AAAFM-Nakamura Award for his pioneering contributions to the flexible, stretchable and wearable electronic systems for healthcare and exploratory neuroscience. John A. Rogers is the Louis Simpson and Kimberly Querrey Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Biomedical Engineering and Medicine at Northwestern University, with affiliate appointments in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering and Chemistry, where he is also Director of the newly endowed Center for Bio-Integrated Electronics. Rogers studies materials and patterning techniques for unusual electronic and photonic devices, with an emphasis on bio-integrated and bio-inspired systems. His extraordinary innovations could help revolutionize the future of healthcare and personal medicine. He has published more than 650 papers (Google Scholar H-index 165; over 111,437 total citations), is a co-inventor on more than 100 patents and he has co-founded several successful technology companies. His research has been recognized by many awards, including a MacArthur Fellowship (2009), the Lemelson-MIT Prize (2011), and the Smithsonian Award for American Ingenuity in the Physical Sciences (2013) – and most recently the Benjamin Franklin Medal from the Franklin Institute (2019). He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Inventors and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
It is with great pleasure that we can announce that the recipients of the inaugural AAAFM- Heeger Award are Professor Julia R. Greer and Professor Xiaodong Xu. The AAAFM-Heeger Award (named after Alan J. Heeger, Nobel Laureate) is a prestigious prize conferred on an outstanding, dynamic young researcher for their outstanding achievements and contributions to the field of Functional Materials. The awards will be presented at the 2nd AAAFM-UCLA Conference on Functional Materials, which will be held in University California, Los Angeles, 19-22August 2019.
Julia R. Greer receives the AAAFM Heeger Award for her pioneering research in creating and applying multi-scale 3D architected materials in chemical and biological devices, ultra-light weight energy storage systems, damage-tolerant fabrics, and additive manufacturing. Greer is a Ruben and Donna Mettler Professor of Materials Science, Mechanics, and Medical Engineering at California Institute of Technology. She has published more than 140 papers and is an inventor on many patents (Google Scholar H-index 56; over 13,472 total citations). She was named a Vannevar-Bush Faculty Fellow by the US Department of Defence (2016) and CNN’s 20/20 Visionary (2016). Her work was recognized among Top-10 Breakthrough Technologies by MIT’s Technology Review (2015). Greer was named as one of “100 Most Creative People” by Fast Company and a Young Global Leader by World Economic Forum (2014) and received multiple career awards: Kavli (2014), Nano Letters, SES, and TMS (2013); NASA, ASME (2012), Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Award (2012), DOE (2011), DARPA (2009), and Technology Review’s TR-35 (2008).
Xiaodong Xu receives the AAAFM-Heeger Award for his seminal contributions in fundamental understanding the optical, electronic, and quantum properties of novel solid state materials through an elegant integration of nanoscale device design, optical spectroscopy, electrical transport, and scanning photocurrent measurements. Xu is a Boeing Distinguished Professor in the Department of Physics and the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Washington. He received his PhD (Physics, 2008) from the University of Michigan and then performed postdoctoral research (2009-2010) at the Center for Nanoscale Systems at Cornell University. His nanoscale quantum-optoelectronics group at University of Washington focuses on creation, control, and understanding of emerging device physics and functionality based on novel low-dimensional quantum materials. He has published over 100 papers (google scholar h-index 58 and over 19,000 citation). Selected awards include DAPRA YFA, NSF Early Career Award, DoE Early Career Award, Cottrell Scholar Award, and IUPAP Young Scientist Prize in Semiconductor Physics.