MRS Postdoctoral Awards

MRS acknowledges the Jiang Family Foundation and MTI Corporation for their generous contribution to support this award.

Nominations are accepted through August 2.

About the Award

The MRS Postdoctoral Awards recognizes postdoctoral scholars who are showing exceptional promise that may include, for example, excellence in scientific research, leadership, advocacy, outreach, or teaching, during their postdoc assignment.

Award Package

Each award consists of a $2,000 honorarium, award trophy, citation certificate, meeting registration fee to attend the Materials Research Society Spring or Fall Meeting at which the award is presented, and a one-year MRS membership. Initially, up to four awards may be given per year.

Nomination

For rules and eligibility, award administration and nomination package requirements, please see MRS Postdoctoral Awards Nomination Information.

In this MRS TV interview, MRS Postdoctoral Award Committee member Christopher Blanford discusses the importance of this award, criteria for recipients, and how to make a nomination.

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MRS Postdoctoral Award Recipients

Zhijie Chen, Northwestern University (2021 MRS Fall Meeting)

“For his outstanding contributions to the fields of porous materials, nanochemistry, and supramolecular assembly”
Dasha Nelidova, Institute of Molecular and Clinical Opthalmology Basel (2021 MRS Fall Meeting)

“For creating tunable nanogenetic near-infrared light sensors to restore vision”
Yang Liu, The Pennsylvania State University (2021 MRS Spring Meeting)

“For the pioneering research in ferroelectric polymers to achieve high piezoelectric responses, and outstanding contributions to understanding of relaxor ferroelectricity in polymers”
Yu Jun Tan, National University of Singapore (2021 MRS Spring Meeting)

“For developing stretchable, self-healing materials for smart electronics”
Edoardo Baldini, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2020 MRS Fall Meeting)

“For implementing novel laser techniques to identify and control collective excitations in quantum materials leading to major advances in the field of excitonics and phononics."
Chengwei Wang, University of Maryland (2020 MRS Fall Meeting)

"For developing a novel high temperature sintering technique for rapid screening and discovery of high performance ceramics for energy and other applications.”
Tian Li, University of Maryland (2020 MRS Spring Meeting)

“For the innovative and pioneering research in wood nanotechnology and nanocellulose toward energy, water and sustainability”
Xianwen Mao, Cornell University (2020 MRS Spring Meeting)

“For developing fabrication strategies and operando imaging techniques for nanoscale electrochemical materials systems important for environmental and energy applications”
Rachel E. Carter, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (2019 MRS Fall Meeting)
“For contributions to the design of safe battery materials and systems, leadership of students and advocacy for women scientists and engineers”
Yasutaka Nagaoka, Brown University (2019 MRS Fall Meeting)
“For contributions to the assembly of nanocrystal superstructures”
Kaifu Bian, Sandia National Laboratories (2019 MRS Spring Meeting)
“For advancing the understanding of nanoparticle assemblies under stress”
Nicholas E. Jackson, Argonne National Laboratory (2019 MRS Spring Meeting)
"For foundational theoretical and computational contributions to the study of structure and transport in charged polymers and organic semiconductors”
James Bullock, University of California, Berkeley (2018 MRS Fall Meeting)

“For the development of dopant-free, selective contacts for high-efficiency Si photovoltaics ”
Minah Lee, Stanford University (2018 MRS Fall Meeting)

“For the development of sustainable organic materials to achieve high-performance energy storage devices and understanding their redox mechanisms ”
Arnab Banerjee, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (2018 MRS Spring Meeting)

“For groundbreaking experiments providing evidence of topological excitations in a two-dimensional magnet, moving toward lossless qubits in quantum computing ”
Jie Xu, Stanford University (2018 MRS Spring Meeting)

“For applying polymer physics concepts to realize integrated, intrinsically stretchable transistors for skin electronics”
Michael Saliba, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) (2017 MRS Fall Meeting)

“For developing a family of stable, reproducible and highly efficient multi-cation perovskites for optoelectronics.”
Jieun Yang, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (2017 MRS Fall Meeting)

“For creative research in chemically exfoliated 2D materials and tireless dedication to mentoring women in science and engineering.”
Bert Conings, Hasselt University (2017 MRS Spring Meeting)

“For innovation in hybrid perovskite photovoltaics, addressing fabrication, lifetime, and toxicity issues”
Yunlong Zi, Georgia Institute of Technology (2017 MRS Spring Meeting)

"For pioneering research to improve the efficiency and wider applicability of mechanical energy harvesting systems”
Qi Li, The Pennsylvania State University, and Yongming Sun, Stanford University (2016 MRS Fall Meeting)

Qi Li, The Pennsylvania State University
“For advancing the field of polymer nanocomposites for electrical energy storage and conversion.”

Yongming Sun, Stanford University
“For advancing the development of high-capacity battery materials.”
Babak Anasori, Drexel University (2016 MRS Spring Meeting)
“For innovative research on 2D materials, creative and artistic ways of presenting science, dedication to and love of teaching, and student mentoring.”
Shinbuhm Lee, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (2016 MRS Spring Meeting)
“For the innovative development of multifunctional ionic devices via vertically aligned heterostructures, and outstanding contributions for theoretical and experimental understanding of them.”
Jiamian Hu, The Pennsylvania State University (2015 MRS Fall Meeting)
“For pioneering contributions to the theoretical understanding of strain-mediated electric-field-induced magnetization switching in magnetoelectric nanostructures and for designing prototypes of magnetoelectric devices”
Beata Layla Mehdi, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (2015 MRS Fall Meeting)
“For advances in in situ transmission electron microscopy instrumentation for electrochemical studies and quantitative understanding of nanoscale processes taking place in energy storage systems”
Dustin Janes, The University of Texas at Austin (2015 MRS Spring Meeting)
“For outstanding theoretical and experimental contributions to understanding transport in polymer films and membranes and novel nano- and micro-patterning methodologies, and his dedicated mentorship of graduate and undergraduate student researchers”
Chao Wang, Stanford University (2014 MRS Fall Meeting)
“For innovative research developing self-healing electronic materials and utilizing the self-healing concept to achieve high-performance, long lifetime electronic and energy storage devices”
Jonathan Rivnay, École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Saint-Étienne (2014 MRS Fall Meeting)

“For the development of state-of-the-art organic electronic devices for interfacing with biology, through the elucidation of structure versus electrical properties relationships”