The Semiconductor Industry Association and the Semiconductor Research Corporation have announced the recipients of the 2022 University Research Awards: Mark J.W. Rodwell, Doluca Family Endowed Chair and Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara; and Tajana Šimunić Rosing, Fratamico Endowed Chair and Professor in the Computer Science and Engineering Department at the University of California, San Diego. These awards are presented annually to individuals who demonstrate excellence in advancing research in semiconductor technology and design. Rodwell will receive the honor for excellence in semiconductor technology research. His development of millimeter- and submillimeter-wave indium phosphide heterojunction bipolar transistors and III–V metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors have extended the limits of high-frequency radio, high-speed optical communications, and imaging applications. Rosing will receive the award for excellence in semiconductor design research. Inspired by the human brain, her research work on hyperdimensional computing systems has been accelerated in hardware such as graphics processing units, field-programmable gate arrays, and processing in memory to handle high-dimensional vectors in data-intensive applications, including COVID-19 sequence analysis, drug discovery, personalized health care, and the Internet of Things.
Alexandra Navrotsky has been awarded the Czochralski Medal from the European Materials Research Society, their highest honor for lifetime research achievement in materials science. The award is presented every year to a scientist based on their achievements in advanced materials science. Navrotsky is the director of the Navrotsky Eyring Center for Materials of the Universe and a Regents Professor in the School of Molecular Sciences and School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy at Arizona State University. She is also an affiliated faculty member of the School of Earth and Space Exploration. By advancing high- and low-temperature reaction calorimetry as a foundational research tool, she has contributed to a broad spectrum of applications, from mineral thermodynamics to ceramic processing to zeolites.
The National Academy of Inventors (NAI) has elected University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), engineer and physicist Ramamoorthy Ramesh to the 2022 class of NAI Fellows. Ramesh is a professor of materials science and engineering and of physics at UC Berkeley, and currently vice president for research at Rice University. He has pioneered work in the development of complex oxides, quantum materials, and multiferroic materials. The NAI Fellows Program highlights academic inventors who have demonstrated a spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on the quality of life, economic development, and the welfare of society.
Rachel Oliver and Silvia Vignolini, from the University of Cambridge, have been awarded a Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Technologies. Funded by the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, the Chair in Emerging Technologies scheme aims to identify global research visionaries and provide them with long-term support. Oliver is a professor in the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, and is a Fellow of Robinson College and director of the Cambridge Centre for Gallium Nitride. Oliver's research aims to create a set of materials fabrication processes that control the structure and properties of porous gallium nitride. Vignolini and her Bio-inspired Photonics Group in the Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry have discovered that plants produce bright and vibrant coloration through organizing cellulose into submicrometer structures that manipulate light. These natural examples have inspired her to mimic the use of biological building blocks to create sustainable colorants in the laboratory. She is developing a new generation of manufacturing processes to produce colors using only naturally derived biomaterials, such as cellulose, a biodegradable and abundant plant material.
Rigoberto Advincula, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Tennessee, Knoxville-Oak Ridge National Laboratory Governor’s Chair Professor of Advanced and Nanostructured Materials, has been selected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry through their “Leaders in the Field” program, which identifies individuals for their outstanding contributions to chemistry. His work focuses on developing new polymer materials, and also exploring new methods of characterization, advanced manufacturing, and the application of artificial intelligence. The University of the Philippines have also named Advincula a recipient of its 2022 Lifetime Distinguished Achievement Award, awarded as a reflection of the value of the research he has done and the breakthroughs he has made that brought about “change to benefit the lives of many” over the course of his distinguished career. Advincula graduated from the university with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry in 1987.
The Indian Government has recognized Australian Academy of Science President Professor Chennupati Jagadish for his outstanding achievements in science, technology, and education during an international award ceremony. He is one of 30 people born in India—now widely dispersed across the world—to receive the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award this year, and the only Indian-Australian. He commented that this award is the highest honor given to Indians living overseas by the Indian Government. “It has been a humbling experience to receive this award from the President of India. I am grateful for this honor from the Government of India for my contributions to science, technology, and education.” In 2015, Jagadish and his wife Vidya Jagadish launched the Chennupati and Vidya Jagadish endowment fund to support students and researchers from developing countries to visit Australia and pursue collaborative research.
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