A team of judges consisting of editors from Acta Materialia, Scripta Materialia, Acta Biomaterialia and Materialia has completed the evaluation of nominees for the above awards. This year we received many excellent nominations, and selecting the winners was an incredibly challenging task. Several factors are considered in the evaluation of each nominee: the quality of the paper, or papers, for which the individual was nominated, recommendation letters, and leadership potential. The awardees selected from papers published in 2021 in the Acta Journals are:
Dr. Glenn Balbus, The University of California, Santa Barbara, UNITED STATES. Advisor: Daniel Gianola. "Disordered interfaces enable high temperature thermal stability and strength in a nanocrystalline aluminum alloy”, Acta Materialia 215 (August 2021).
Dr. Bárbara Bellón, IMDEA Materials Institute & Polytechnic University of Madrid, SPAIN. Advisors: Prof. Javier LLorca & Dr. Ilchat Sabirov. "Multiscale prediction of microstructure length scales in metallic alloy casting”, Acta Materialia 207 (April 2021).
Mr. João Vitor Campos, University of Sao Paulo, BRAZIL. Advisor: Prof. Eliria M. J. A. Pallone. "On the Arrhenius-like behavior of conductivity during flash sintering of 3 mol% yttria-stabilized zirconia ceramics”, Scripta Materialia 203 (October 2021).
Mr. Avanish K. Chandan, Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research- National Metallurgical Laboratory, INDIA. Advisor: Dr. Sandip Ghosh Chowdhury & Dr. Mainak Ghosh. "Temperature dependent deformation behavior and stacking fault energy of Fe40Mn40Co10Cr10 alloy”, Scripta Materialia 199 (July 2021).
Mr. Junyu Chen, Tsinghua University, CHINA. Advisor: Gang Fang. "Improved elastocaloric cooling performance in gradient-structured NiTi alloy processed by localized laser surface annealing”, Acta Materialia 208 (April 2021).
Dr. W. Streit Cunningham, State University of New York at Stony Brook, UNITED STATES. Advisor: Jason Trelewicz. "Suppressing irradiation induced grain growth and defect accumulation in nanocrystalline tungsten through grain boundary doping", Acta Materialia 206 (March 2021).
Mr. Easton Farrell, University of Michigan, UNITED STATES. Advisor: Mario L. Fabiilli. “Spatiotemporal control of myofibroblast activation in acoustically-responsive scaffolds via ultrasound-induced matrix stiffening”, Acta Biomaterialia 138 (January 2022) 133–143.
Dr. Chuchu Li, Kiel University, GERMANY. Advisor: Stanislav N. Gorb. “Biomechanical strategies to reach a compromise between stiffness and flexibility in hind femora of desert locusts”, Acta Biomaterialia 134, (October 2021), 490-498.
Dr. Mackenzie Perry, Virginia Tech, UNITED STATES. Advisor: Hang Yu. “Tracing plastic deformation path and concurrent grain refinement during additive friction stir deposition”, Materialia 18 (August 2021).
Dr. Ehsan Rahimi, University of Udine, ITALY. Advisors: Dr. Maria Lekka & Prof. Lorenzo Fedrizzi. "Role of phosphate, calcium species and hydrogen peroxide on albumin protein adsorption on surface oxide of Ti6Al4V alloy”, Materialia 15 (March 2021).
Dr. Mackenzie Ridley, University of Virginia, UNITED STATES. Advisor: Dr. Elizabeth Opila. "YbPO4: A Novel Environmental Barrier Coating Candidate with Superior Thermochemical Stability”, Materialia 21 (March 2022).
Dr. Gabriel Spartacus, CEA Saclay, FRANCE. Advisors: Alexis Deschamps, Joël Malaplate, Frédéric De Geuser. “Characterization of the nature and morphology of coarse precipitation in various oxide dispersion strengthened steels”, Materialia 17 (June 2021).
Miss Chihiro Tabata, Waseda University, JAPAN. Advisor: Prof. Shinsuke Suzuki. "Quantitative analysis of sulfur segregation at the oxide/substrate interface in Ni-base single crystal superalloy”, Scripta Materialia 194 (March 2021).
Mr. Guangzhao Tian, Medical School of Nankai University, CHINA. Advisor: Shuyun Liu. “Cell-free decellularized cartilage extracellular matrix scaffolds combined with interleukin 4 promote osteochondral repair through immunomodulatory macrophages: In vitro and in vivo preclinical study”, Acta Biomaterialia 127 (June 2021) 131-145.
Dr. Adriana Vinhas, University of Minho, PORTUGAL. Advisors: Prof. Manuela Gomes & Dr. Márcia Rodrigues. “Human tendon-derived cell sheets created by magnetic force-based tissue engineering hold tenogenic and immunomodulatory potential”, Acta Biomaterialia 131 (September 2021) 236-247.
Dr. Jingqi Zhang, The University of Queensland, AUSTRAILIA. Advisor: Prof. Mingxing Zhang. "Achieving high ductility in a selectively laser melted commercial pure-titanium via in-situ grain refinement”, Scripta Materialia 191 (January 2021).
Award Winners (from left to right): Dr. Glenn Balbus, Dr. Bárbara Bellón, Mr. João Vitor Campos, Mr. Avanish K. Chandan, Mr. Junyu Chen, Dr. W. Streit Cunningham, Dr. Chuchu Li, Dr. Mackenzie Perry, Dr. Ehsan Rahimi, Dr. Mackenzie Ridley, Dr. Gabriel Spartacus, Miss Chihiro Tabata, Dr. Adriana Vinhas, Dr. Jingqi Zhang. Not pictured: Mr. Easton Farrell and Mr. Guangzhao Tian.