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Nine undergraduates recently received the 2010 Deans' Award for Academic Accomplishment, which honors students for exceptional, tangible accomplishments in independent research, national academic competitions, a presentation or publication for a regional or national audience, and superior performance in the creative arts.

Nine undergraduates receive Deans' Award for Academic Accomplishment

Stanford, CA | Posted on May 25th, 2010

Nine undergraduates recently received the 2010 Deans' Award for Academic Accomplishment, which honors students for exceptional, tangible accomplishments in independent research, national academic competitions, a presentation or publication for a regional or national audience, and superior performance in the creative arts.

Tom Wasow, a professor of philosophy and of linguistics, created the award in 1988, when he was serving as dean of undergraduate studies. "We created this award to celebrate some of the exceptional scholarly achievements of our undergraduates and to bring them campus-wide recognition," he said.

Faculty and staff members who work closely with undergraduates submit nominations. A committee established by the deans of the three schools that offer undergraduate degrees - Earth Sciences, Engineering, and Humanities and Sciences - select the winners.

Two of the nine 2010 Deans' Award recipients and descriptions of their work follow:

Patrick Gallagher, of San Jose, Calif., is a senior completing a degree in physics and is honored for his extraordinary academic achievements in physics research.

David Goldhaber-Gordon, associate professor of physics, describes Gallagher as "a rare young scientist who will make a major impact on his field and who is already functioning at the level of a strong third-year graduate student."

Gallagher has mastered techniques of nanofabrication, precision electrical measurement and cryogenics while developing a sophisticated understanding of electrons in semiconductor nanostructures. He is cited for producing results and insights that his mentors are sure will make a big impact in graphene electronics.

Goldhaber-Gordon writes that it is "remarkable that an undergraduate has made a major contribution to the field." Gallagher's paper has been accepted to the international journal Physical Review B as an "Editor's Choice"; only 5 percent of articles are so designated.

With a major grant from Undergraduate Advising and Research, Gallagher worked with a postdoctoral student on other types of atomically thin layered material; the work resulted in a prestigious Keck Foundation grant and an article in Nano Letters, a publication of the American Chemical Society that reports on fundamental research in all branches of the theory and practice of nanoscience and nanotechnology.

Jee Soo Yoo, of Seoul, Korea, is a junior in materials science and engineering who is honored for her exceptional research ability in the area of nanostructured materials.

Since the summer of 2008, she has worked closely with Yi Cui, assistant professor of materials science and engineering, studying nanostructured materials for energy storage. Yoo has been an important designer and contributor to the effort to answer the key question as to whether there is nanopore formation in silicon nanowires.

Together with her collaborators, Yoo found that nanopores can be created inside nanowires and their size can be controlled from 1 to 100 nanometers by the frequency of lithium ion insertion/extraction. Her work utilizing these nanoporous nanowires to fabricate high-energy and high-power supercapacitors has been accepted for publication in the prestigious journal Nano Letters, and Yoo has co-authored a second article, currently under review by a leading international chemistry journal.

Cui notes that it is rare to find a junior with the exceptional skills, work ethic and superior ability in designing experiments, analyzing data, and generating and testing hypotheses, and predicts that Yoo will be a leader in her chosen field.

Each award winner received a copy of the citation read at the ceremony, a certificate signed by the three deans and a gift card.

Read about the other 7 award recipients here news.stanford.edu/news/2010/may/deans-awards-winners-052510.html