Since 2018, the Materials Today ‘Rising Star Awards’ recognize researchers in materials science and engineering who have demonstrated themselves to be exceptionally capable researchers with the potential to become future leaders in the field.

The nomination for 2022 Materials Today ‘Rising Star Awards’ was closed on 1st October 2022, and the winners were announced during MRS Fall meeting. This year, there are in total 7 winners from four different research fields. There will be three webinars presented by the winners next February. Registration details will be delivered in due time – stay tuned!

Read below for more information on the winners.

Wei Gao
Wei Gao

Category: Biomaterials

Dr. Wei Gao is an Assistant Professor of Medical Engineering, Ronald and JoAnne Willens Scholar, and Heritage Medical Research Institute Investigator at the California Institute of Technology. He received his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering at University of California, San Diego in 2014. In 2014–2017, he was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley. He is an Associate Editor of Science Advances. He is a recipient of IAMBE Early Career Award, NSF Career Award, Pittsburgh Conference Achievement Award, ONR Young Investigator Award, Sloan Research Fellowship, IEEE EMBS Early Career Achievement Award, IEEE Sensor Council Technical Achievement Award, 3M Non-Tenured Faculty Award, MIT Technology Review 35 Innovators Under 35, and ACS DIC Young Investigator Award. He is a World Economic Forum Young Scientist, a member of Global Young Academy, and a Highly Cited Researcher (Web of Science). His research interests include wearable devices, biosensors, flexible electronics, micro/nanorobotics, and nanomedicine.

Highlighted publications:

  1. R. M. Torrente-Rodríguez, H. Lukas, J. Tu, J. Min, Y. Yang, C. Xu, H. B. Rossiter, W. Gao*, SARS-CoV-2 RapidPlex: A Graphene-based Multiplexed Telemedicine Platform for Rapid and Low-Cost COVID-19 Diagnosis and Monitoring, Matter, 2020, 3, 1981-1998.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matt.2020.09.027
  2. M. Wang, Y. Yang, J. Min, Y. Song, J. Tu, D. Mukasa, C. Ye, C. Xu, N. Heflin, J. S. McCune, T. K. Hsiai, Z. Li, W. Gao*, A Wearable Electrochemical Biosensor for the Monitoring of Metabolites and Nutrients, Nature Biomedical Engineering, 2022, 10.1038/s41551-022-00916-z.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41551-022-00916-z
  3. J. Min, J. R. Sempionatto, H. Teymourian, J. Wang, W. Gao, Wearable electrochemical biosensors in North America, Biosensors and Bioelectronics, 2021, 172, 112750. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bios.2020.112750
Rona Chandrawati
Rona Chandrawati

Dr. Rona Chandrawati is a Scientia Associate Professor and NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow in the School of Chemical Engineering at the University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney), Australia. She obtained her PhD from The University of Melbourne in 2012 and was then a Marie Curie Fellow at Imperial College London before returning to Australia as a Lecturer (2015-2017), Scientia Senior Lecturer (2018-2020), and Scientia Associate Professor (2021-present). She completed an Executive Leadership Program at the University of Oxford in 2020. A/Prof Chandrawati’s research group focuses on developing enzyme-like catalysts for drug delivery and designing polymer-based nanomaterials for sensors in food safety and health monitoring. She has authored over 95 publications in prominent journals such as Science, Advanced Materials, Advanced Science, Biomaterials, Chem, and ACS Nano. A/Prof Chandrawati is an Editor of Communications Materials and she also serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of JACS Au and Advanced Sensor Research. She is passionate about science communication and regularly appeared in the media, including BBC World News, Forbes, ABC Australia, and SBS Australia. In 2020, she was named as one of ‘Australia’s Most Innovative Engineers’ by Engineers Australia. In 2021, she was named as the ‘New South Wales Early Career Researcher of the Year’ of the NSW Premier’s Prizes for Science & Engineering. In 2022, she received the 40 Under 40 Most Influential Asian-Australian Award.

Highlighted publications:

  1. Yingzhu Zhou, Tao Yang, Kang Liang, Rona Chandrawati, Metal-organic frameworks for therapeutic gas delivery, Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews, 2021, 171, 199-214, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addr.2021.02.005
  2. Tao Yang, Yingzhu Zhou, Soshan Cheong, Charlie Kong, Federico Mazur, Kang Liang, Rona Chandrawati, Modulating nitric oxide-generating activity of zinc oxide by morphology control and surface modification, Materials Science and Engineering: C, 2021, 130, 112428, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.msec.2021.112428
  3. Xiao Fu, Leticia Hosta-Rigau, Rona Chandrawati, Jiwei Cui, Multi-Stimuli-Responsive Polymer Particles, Films, and Hydrogels for Drug Delivery, Chem 2018, 4, 2084-2107, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chempr.2018.07.002
Juan-Pablo Correa-Baena
Juan-Pablo Correa-Baena

Category: Energy Conversion & Storage

Dr. Juan-Pablo Correa-Baena is an Assistant Professor and the Goizueta Junior Faculty Chair in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. His group focuses on understanding and control of crystallographic structure and effects on electronic dynamics at the nanoscale of low-cost semiconductors for optoelectronic applications. Dr. Correa-Baena’s group works on advanced deposition techniques, with emphasis on low-cost and high throughput, as well as advanced characterization methods that include synchrotron-based mapping and imaging approaches with nanoscale resolution. His research program at Georgia Tech has attracted funding from the Department of Energy, Department of Defense, and several industrial partners, which funds cutting-edge research on new materials for energy harvesting and conversion. His work has been cited over 28,000 times (h-index of 59) making him a top cited researcher as recognized by the Web of Science Group Highly Cited Researchers (2019-2021) and Nature Index Leading early career researcher in materials science (2019).

Highlighted publications:

  1. Yuce, H., Perini, C. A. R., Hidalgo, J., Castro-Méndez, A. F., Evans, C., Betancur, P. F., Vagott, J. N., An, Y., Bairley, K., Demir, M. M., & Correa-Baena, J. P.* Understanding the impact of SrI2 additive on the properties of Sn-based halide perovskites. Optical Materials, 2022, 123, 111806.
  2. Ranke, D., Perini, C. A. R., & Correa-Baena, J. P.* In data science we trust: Machine learning for stable halide perovskites. Matter, 2021, 4(4), 1092–1094.
  3. Perini, C. A. R., Doherty, T. A. S., Stranks, S. D., Correa-Baena, J. P.*, & Hoye, R. L. Z. Pressing challenges in halide perovskite photovoltaics—from the atomic to module level. Joule, 2021, 5(5), 1024–1030. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joule.2021.03.011
Kelsey Stoerzinger
Kelsey Stoerzinger

Dr. Kelsey Stoerzinger is currently an assistant professor in the School of Chemical, Biological and Environmental Engineering at Oregon State University. Her research group focuses on designing and understanding materials that are selective and efficient in the conversion and storage of renewable energy via chemical fuels. Dr. Stoerzinger holds a joint appointment at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, where she was a Linus Pauling Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow until 2018. She completed her doctoral studies in Materials Science and Engineering in 2016 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. Dr. Stoerzinger received an M.Phil. in Physics from the University of Cambridge as a Churchill Scholar and a B.S. from Northwestern University. She is the recipient of NSF CAREER and DOE Early Career Awards, in addition to recognition for her contributions as a teacher and advisor.

Highlighted publications:

  1. Carvalho, O.Q. Marks, R. Nguyen, H.K.K. Vitale-Sullivan, M.E. Martinez, S.C. Árnadóttir, L. Stoerzinger, K.A.* “Role of electronic structure on nitrate reduction to ammonium: a periodic journey” Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2022, 144, 14809–14818. https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.2c05673
  2. Adiga, P. Nunn, W. Wong, C. Manjeshwar, A.K. Nair, S. Jalan, B. Stoerzinger, K.A.* “Breaking OER and CER scaling relations via strain and its relaxation on RuO2” Materials Today Energy, 2022, 28, 101087. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mtener.2022.101087
  3. Carvalho, O.Q. Adiga, P. Murthy, S.K. Fulton, J.L. Gutierrez, O.Y. Stoerzinger, K.A.* “Understanding the role of surface heterogeneities in electrosynthesis reactions.” iScience, 2020, 23, 101814. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2020.101814
Houlong Zhuang
Houlong Zhuang

Category: Materials Data Science & AI

Dr. Houlong Zhuang is currently an Assistant Professor in the School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy at Arizona State University. He obtained his doctorate in Materials Science and Engineering at Cornell University in 2014. He worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Oak Ridge National Laboratory from 2014-2015, and as a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University from 2015-2017. He was trained as a theoretical and computational materials scientist in various fields of materials science and engineering, especially in energy-related areas including catalysis, lightweight metal alloys, two-dimensional materials, and solid/liquid interfaces. His current research is focused on applying quantum mechanical simulations, machine learning and quantum computing calculations to tackle issues such as hydrogen storage and direct air capture for a sustainable energy and environment future. According to Google Scholar, Dr. Zhuang has garnered over 9000 citations on his more than 100 publications, resulting in an h-index of 43. Dr. Zhuang is a Scialog Fellow for Negative Emissions Science and a Fellow of the International Association of Advanced Materials (IAAM).

Highlighted publications:

  1. H. L. Zhuang*. Sudoku-inspired high-Shannon-entropy alloys, Acta Materialia, 2022, 225, 117556. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2021.117556
  2. D. Wang, L. Liu, M. Chen, and H. L. Zhuang*. Electrical and thermal transport properties of medium-entropy SiyGeySnx alloys, Acta Materialia, 2020, 199, 443. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2020.08.053
  3. W. Huang, P. Martin, and H. L. Zhuang*. Machine-learning phase prediction of high-entropy alloys, Acta Materialia, 2019, 169, 225. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2019.03.012
Jiadong Zhou
Jiadong Zhou

Category: Quantum Materials

Dr. Jiadong Zhou is currently a full professor at Beijing Institute of Technology. He completed his Ph.D at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, working on the synthesis and properties of 2D materials. His work now focuses on the following topics: 1) Synthesis, construction, and engineering of high-quality and large-size novel 2D TMDs, superlattice and quantum materials; 2) Physical properties of ultrathin 2D materials such as superconductivity, 2D ferromagnetism and ferroelectricity; 3) Applications of 2D materials such as novel semiconducting electronics. He has published more than 100 papers, including Nature (2 papers), Nature Materials (1 papers), Nature Electronics (2 papers) and so on, with total citations > 7,000 and H-index of 42 (Google Scholar, as of Nov 2022).

Highlighted publications:

  1. Jiadong Zhou, Wenjie Zhang, Yung-Chang, Lin, et al. Heterodimensional superlattice with in-plane anomalous Hall effect. Nature, 609, 46–51 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05031-2
  2. Jiadong Zhou, Chao Zhu, Yao Zhou, et al. Composition and phase engineering of metal chalcogenides and phosphorous chalcogenides. Nature Materials, (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-022-01291-5
  3. Bijun Tang, Yuhao Lu, Jiadong Zhou, Tushar Chouhan, Han Wang, Prafful Golani, Manzhang Xu, Quan Xu, Cuntai Guan, Zheng Liu, Machine learning-guided synthesis of advanced inorganic materials, Materials Today, 2020 (41), 72-80. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mattod.2020.06.010
Fei Ding
Fei Ding

Dr. Fei Ding is currently an assistant professor at the University of Southern Denmark. His research interests include nanophotonics, metasurfaces, plasmonics, and quantum nanophotonics. He has published more than 65 articles in peer-reviewed journals, such as Nature Communications, Science Advances, Reports on Progress in Physics, Light: Science & Applications, Advanced Materials, ACS Nano, etc. Remarkably, his papers have been cited > 4150 times according to Web of Science with an H-index of 28 and his publication list contains 10 ESI Highly Cited Papers, a distinction awarded by Web of Science to only 1% of publications. Dr. Ding was honored Wang Daheng Optical Prize for Graduate Student from the Chinese Optical Society (2014), the Young Scientist Award from the Progress in Electromagnetics Research Symposium (2018,2019), World’s Top 2% Scientists List (from Mendeley Data/Elsevier; the singer year 2020 and 2021), Villum Young Investigator from Villum Fonden (2021), OSA Senior Member distinction (2021), and DOPS award from Danish Optical Society (2022). He is an active reviewer of more than 20 international journals and received the Publons Peer Review Awards (2018,2019). He is now serving as an Associate Editor of IEEE Photonics Journal.

Highlighted publications:

  1. Chao Meng; Paul C. V. Thrane, Fei Ding, Sergey I. Bozhevolnyi, Full-range birefringence control with piezoelectric MEMS-based metasurfaces, Nature Communications, 13, 2071 (2022). http://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29798-0
  2. C. Wu, S. Kumar, Y. Kan, D. Komisar, Z. Wang, S. I. Bozhevolnyi, and F. Ding, Room-temperature on-chip orbital angular momentum single-photon sources, Science Advances, 8, eabk3075 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abk3075
  3. Anisha Chirumamilla, Yuanqing Yang, Maria H. Salazar, Fei Ding, Deyong Wang, Peter Kjær Kristensen, Peter Fojan, Sergey I. Bozhevolnyi, Duncan S. Sutherland, Kjeld Pedersen, Manohar Chirumamilla, Spectrally selective emitters based on 3D Mo nanopillars for thermophotovoltaic energy harvesting, Materials Today Physics, 21, 100503, (2021). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mtphys.2021.100503