Sandia National Laboratories researcher Hongyou Fan was honored for his “outstanding poster” at the 2013 Spring Meeting of the Materials Research Society (MRS) in San Francisco. His was one of only 12 posters selected out of 2,147 at the conference.
Sandia National Laboratories’ Hongyou Fan at work with nanocoatings in his lab. (Photo by Randy Montoya)
His poster then was chosen as one of three — the best of the best — to represent the MRS in Cancun, Mexico, from Aug. 11-15 at the 22nd annual International Materials Research Congress. The other two winning posters were from Stanford and Drexel universities.
Said Paula Mahar, the MRS program coordinator who notified Fan of both the national and international honors, “The poster sessions are a highlight of the MRS Meetings and are one of the best-attended events, so not only is the award something of distinction, it’s also a very public honor.”
A certificate, presented to Fan by the meeting chairpeople, states that the poster was “judged superior in technical content, appearance, graphic excellence and presentation quality.”
Titled “Solution-Based Nanoengineering of Multifunctional Coatings through Self-Assembly Techniques,” the poster reported progress in the self-assembling of nanoparticles into ordered, 3-D films with uniform optical properties. The coatings, developed for near-infrared reflectors, bypass the harsh conditions imposed by conventional processing and so achieve improved functionality and novel properties. The method also permits development of anti-reflective optical coatings through phase separation of light.
Collaborating with Fan on the work was Sandia fellow and University of New Mexico (UNM) professor Jeff Brinker, Sandia researcher Bruce Burckel, former UNM postdoctoral fellow Zaicheng Sun, former Sandia post-doctoral fellow Huimeng Wu and UNM graduate student Raid Haddad.
The work was partially supported by the Department of Energy’s Basic Energy Sciences and Sandia’s Laboratory Directed Research and Development programs.
A similar “outstanding” commendation was received at the Spring 2012 MRS meeting by Sandia postdoctoral student Binsong Li, a member of Hongyou’s research group. Li’s poster was titled “Pressure-Directed Folding and Unfolding Self-Assembly of New Classes of Multi-Dimensional Nanostructures.”