Stony Brook University Student Wins Dr. Mow Shiah Lin Scholarship
October 9, 2007
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Beth Y. Lin, widow of Mow Shiah Lin and co-coordinator of the Asian Pacific American Association, presents Stony Brook University student Yuan Sun with the 2007 Dr. Mow Shiah Lin Scholarship. (Click on image to download a high-resilution version.)
UPTON, NY - Yuan Sun, a graduate student in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Stony Brook University, has won the third annual Dr. Mow Shiah Lin Scholarship. The Asian Pacific American Association at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory initiated the scholarship, which consists of $1,000 and a plaque, to honor the distinguished late Brookhaven Lab scientist for which it is named.
Mow Shiah Lin began his career at Brookhaven Lab in 1975 as a postdoctoral fellow and advanced to co-lead a research team working with an environmental remediation company to use selected bacteria to convert toxic oil wastes, such as used motor oils, into useful products. In 2001, Lin shared the R&D 100 Award, given by R&D Magazine to the top 100 technological achievements of the year, for a technology to recover silica from geothermal brine. Lin died suddenly due to a brain aneurysm at the height of his career in 2003, and his coworkers, friends and family contributed funds to establish the scholarship.
In honor of Lin's research, achievements and inventions, the scholarship is granted annually to an Asian immigrant with a student visa who is matriculating toward a graduate degree at an accredited institution of higher education in environmental science, biology, or chemistry, in remembrance of the manner in which Lin began his career.
"I am greatly honored to receive this scholarship," Sun said. "I admire Dr. Lin's achievements, and I'm inspired by them. In my own career, I hope to achieve advances in nanotechnology that are beneficial for human beings and the environment."
Yuan Sun earned a B.S. in chemistry and an M.S. in macromolecular science from Fudan University, Shanghai, in 1998 and 2001, consecutively. She earned another M.S. in materials science and engineering from Stony Brook University in 2005, and she expects to earn her Ph.D. in that field in December 2007.
Currently, Sun's research focuses on the synthesis of metallic nanomaterials and their applications in hydrogen storage and fuel cells. Her earlier research has already yielded practical results. She holds a patent from China for a method to prepare highly oil-absorbent resin, and she has filed for a U.S. patent for a method to synthesize platinum nanoparticles with applications in hydrogen storage and cancer treatment.
After receiving her Ph.D., Sun hopes to find a research position in nanotechnology in which she can design new nanomaterials for efficient hydrogen storage so that hydrogen can be used as an alternative, clean source of energy for vehicles and other applications.
2007-10695 | INT/EXT | Newsroom
