Elena Shevchenko, nanoscientist at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory, has joined a select list of the world's youngest top innovators chosen by Technology Review magazine for her work at Argonne's Center for Nanoscale Materials.
Elena Shevchenko, recently named one of Technology Review's top young innovators, is a member of Argonne's Center for Nanoscale Materials. (Photo courtesy Technology Review.)
"I am honored to be considered one of the Top 35 young innovators and will continue to work diligently to live up to the honor," Shevchenko said. "Nanoscience is a burgeoning field of science with so many discoveries to be made. There are so many possibilities for the future and I am excited to be a part of it. Self-assembly is a natural pathway to create matter at atomic and macromolecular levels. By being able to mix and match different types of nanocrystals and having control over the interaction of neighboring constituents, we have enormous flexibility in material design with low cost."
Every year since 2005,Technology Review has recognized 35 innovators under the age of 35 for their work in developing new technologies or a creative use of existing technology. The 2009 TR35 were selected from more than 300 submissions by the editors of Technology Review in collaboration with a panel of judges from leading organizations such as the California Institute of Technology, Flagship Ventures, Google, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), PureTech Ventures and the University of California, Berkeley.
TR35 winners will be profiled in the September/October issue of Technology Review and online. In addition, the EmTech@MIT 2009 Conference, to be held September 22–24 at MIT, will honor the winners in a series of “Meet the TR35” presentations, dedicated breakout sessions, and receptions.
Shevchenko received her master's degree in chemistry from Belarusian State University, Minsk and her Ph.D. degree in physical chemistry from the University of Hamburg in Germany. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the IBM T.J Watson Research Center and Columbia University.
She was a staff scientist at The Molecular Foundry at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, Calif., and scientist at the Center for Nanoscale Materials since August of 2005, where her work has been supported by the DOE Office of Science. Her specific areas of interest lie in synthesis of nanoscale materials (magnetic, semiconductor, metallic oxide nanoparticles) with controllable size and shape; nanoparticle design; design of multifunctional materials through self-assembly of nanoparticles; and study of the collective properties of such materials.
"I have to give all credit for my award to my former advisers and colleagues Horst Weller, Chris Murray, Stephen O’Brien, Andrey Rogach, Dmitri Talapin, Paul Alivisatos and Tijana Rajh," she said. "From them I got a great introduction into the synthesis of nanocrystals and the discovery of their exciting properties. It is hard to overestimate their enthusiasm and support of my research."