Nandy and Jones win 2022 CoMSEF Graduate Student Awards
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The CoMSEF Graduate Student Awards in Computational Molecular Science and Engineering were awarded to participants in the CoMSEF poster session at the AIChE Annual Meeting: Aditya Nandy (MIT, Advisor: Heather Kulik) and Mike Jones (U. Chicago, Advisor: Andy Ferguson). The CoMSEF Graduate Student Awards recognize excellence in research by graduate students in the field of computational molecular science and engineering. The awardees were selected based on the nomination letters received from each student’s advisor, their CV, and a poster presented during the CoMSEF poster session.
Professor Antonia Statt from the Department of Materials Science & Engineering at the University Illinois Urbana-Champaign is the 2022 winner of the CoMSEF Young Investigator Award. She is cited “for the development and application of innovative computational method and models to understand polymer thin films, colloid-polymer systems, and disordered proteins.” Statt joined the faculty at Illinois in 2019. Before that she was a postdoctoral fellow at the Princeton Center for Complex Materials where she worked in the lab of Prof. Athanassios Z. Panagiotopoulos. She obtained her PhD in the lab of Prof. Kurt Binder in Physics at the University of Mainz in Germany. Statt delivered a presentation describing her research during the CoMSEF Plenary Session at the 2022 AIChE Annual Meeting. The CoMSEF Young Investigator Award is given annually to a CoMSEF member who is within 7 years of completion of their highest degree.
Professor Jim Pfaendtner from the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Washington is the winner of the 2022 CoMSEF Impact Award. He is cited “for contributions to methods and applications in the field of molecular simulation of interfacial phenomena of biomolecules.” Before joining the faculty at Washington, Jim completed his B.S. in chemical engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology and obtained a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Northwestern University in 2007 under the direction of Linda Broadbelt. He also completed postdoctoral research with Greg Voth and Michele Parrinello from 2007-2009. Jim has recently been named the Louis Martin-Vega Dean of the College of Engineering at North Carolina State University with an appointment that becomes effective August 1. Jim delivered a presentation describing his research during the CoMSEF Plenary Session at the 2022 AIChE Annual Meeting. The CoMSEF Impact Award is given annually to a CoMSEF member who is within 15 years of completion of their highest degree.
Professor Reid C. Van Lehn from the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University Wisconsin-Madison is the 2021 winner of the CoMSEF Young Investigator Award. He is cited “for the development and application of computational techniques to understand the interfacial properties of functionalized nanomaterials and their interactions with lipid membranes.” Reid joined the faculty at Wisconsin in 2016. Before that he worked with Professor Thomas F. Miller III at the California Institute of Technology and with Professor Alfredo Alexander-Katz at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a Post-doctoral researcher. Reid received his PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2014 with Professor Alexander-Katz. Reid will deliver a presentation describing his research during the CoMSEF Plenary Session at the 2021 AIChE Annual Meeting. The CoMSEF Young Investigator Award is given annually to a CoMSEF member who is within 7 years of completion of their highest degree.
Professor Arthi Jayaraman from the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of Delaware is the winner of the 2021 CoMSEF Impact Award. She is cited “for outstanding developments in modeling, theory, and simulation of polymer blends, nanocomposites, solutions, and biomaterials critical to the engineering design of advanced materials.” Prior to joining the faculty at Delaware in 2019, Arthi was a professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder. She received her PhD from North Carolina State University in 2006 with Carol Hall. For her post-doctoral research, she worked with Kenneth Schweizer in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign. She was also the winner of the inaugural CoMSEF Young Investigator Award for Modeling and Simulation in 2013. Arthi will deliver a presentation describing her research during the CoMSEF Plenary Session at the 2021 AIChE Annual Meeting. The CoMSEF Impact Award is given annually to a CoMSEF member who is within 15 years of completion of their highest degree.