May 22 2009
Yadong Yin, an assistant professor of chemistry at UC Riverside, has been named a Cottrell Scholar - an honor that carries with it an award of $100,000 to further his research and teaching.
Yadong Yin is an assistant professor of chemistry at University of California - Riverside. Credit: Yin lab, UC Riverside.
The award is given by the Research Corporation for Science Advancement (RCSA), one of the country's first foundations. The Arizona-based RCSA aids basic research in the physical sciences (astronomy, chemistry, and physics mainly) at U.S. and Canadian colleges and universities.
The awards recognize faculty who excel in both teaching and research, and are among the most prestigious fellowships for beginning faculty in the sciences.
Yin is one of only ten Cottrell Scholars named this year.
He received the award for his proposal titled "Self-Assembly of Superparamagnetic Colloids to Field-Responsive Photonic Crystals." In this project, he will study the self-assembly of nanostructures for photonic materials with magnetically tunable optical properties. Applications include novel display units, signage, and reusable electronic paper
The primary focus of Yin's research is to understand the formation mechanism and physical and chemical properties of nanostructured materials, and use these nanostructures to design and fabricate novel electronic, photonic and biomedical devices and other functional materials.
Yin received his Ph.D. in materials science from the University of Washington in 2002. After a postdoctoral appointment at UC Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and a staff scientist position at LBNL, he joined UCR in 2006.
Each year about 30 Cottrell Scholars attend a conference to share ideas about teaching and for discussions with noted scientists who have been recognized as outstanding teacher-scholars. Yin will use a portion of his award to support his travel to the annual Cottrell Scholar Conference, which, this year, takes place July 9-11 in Oro Valley, Ariz.
Chemist Frederick Gardner Cottrell founded and endowed the RCSA in 1912 with the patent rights to his invention, the Cottrell electrostatic precipitator. The award honors his generosity as a benefactor of science through the RCSA and his lifetime devotion to helping young scientists get their start.