WARRENDALE, PA – [September 20, 2011] – The Materials Research Society (MRS) has selected Peidong Yang, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, to receive the 2011 MRS Medal. This prestigious honor recognizes a specific outstanding recent discovery or advancement that is expected to have a major impact on the progress of a materials-related field. Yang was named MRS medalist for "outstanding contributions in the creative synthesis and assembly of semiconductor nanowires and their heterostructures, and innovations in nanowire-based photonics, thermoelectrics, solar energy conversion and nanofluidic applications." Yang will receive the medal during the awards ceremony at the 2011 MRS Fall Meeting in Boston on the evening of Wednesday, November 30 in the Grand Ballroom of the Sheraton Boston Hotel. He will also present his talk, Semiconductor Nanowires for Solar Energy Conversion, in the Grand Ballroom at 12:15 p.m. Wednesday. For the most up-to-date information on the Awards ceremony and talk schedule, visit www.mrs.org/f11-awards.
Yang received his BS in chemistry from University of Science and Technology of China and his PhD in postdoctoral research at University of California, Santa Barbara before joining the faculty in the department of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley in 1999. He is currently a professor in the Department of Chemistry, Materials Science and Engineering and a senior faculty scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). Yang is also the department head, north director of the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP) at LBNL and the deputy director for the Center of Integrated Nanomechanical Systems.
Yang is an associate editor for Journal of the American Chemical Society (ACS) and also serves on editorial advisory board for a number of journals including Accounts of Chemical Research and Nano Letters. He was the founder of the Nanoscience subdivision within ACS. He has co-founded two startups: Nanosys Inc. and Alphabet Energy Inc. He is the recipient of Baekeland Medal, Alfred P. Sloan research fellowship, the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Young Investigator Award and Alan T. Waterman Award. According to ISI (Thomas Reuters), Yang is ranked number one in materials science and number 10 in chemistry for the past 10 years based on average citation per paper. He was recently elected as MRS Fellow. His main research interest is in the area of one-dimensional semiconductor nanostructures and their applications in nanophotonics and energy conversation.
About the Materials Research Society
MRS is an organization of over 13,000 materials researchers from academia, industry and government worldwide, and a recognized leader in promoting the advancement of interdisciplinary materials research and technology to improve the quality of life. MRS members are students and professionals hailing from physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics and engineering—the full spectrum of materials research. Headquartered in Warrendale, Pennsylvania (USA), MRS membership now spans 90 countries, with approximately 45 percent of members residing outside the United States.
MRS serves and engages members across generations to advance their careers and promote materials research and innovation. The Society produces high-quality meetings and publications, assuring that members of all career stages can present and publish their most important and timely work to an international and interdisciplinary audience. MRS continues to expand its professional development portfolio, as well as promote diversity and inclusion in the scientific workforce, with career services for researchers worldwide. The Society advocates for the importance of scientific research and innovation to policymakers and the community. And the MRS Awards program honors those whose work has already had a major impact in the field, as well as those whose work shows great promise for future leadership.
For more information about the Materials Research Society visit
mrs.org and follow
@Materials_MRS.