BWIS Announces Recipients of the 2023 Chasman Award; Virtual Ceremony and Talks, 7/31

July 20, 2023

Brookhaven Women in Science (BWIS) has named Anushka Banerjee, Yifan Ning, and Yifan Yin the 2023 recipients of the Renate W. Chasman Award. BWIS will present the awards to Banerjee, Ning, and Yin who will each give a talk about their research at a ceremony on Monday, July 31, at noon. This event will be held virtually on Zoom. All are invited.

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Banerjee will give a talk on “Parallelization of Radia Magnetostatics Code and Extending Its Range of Applications,” Ning will give a talk on “Thermally Triggered Lubricating Ligands in Dynamic Nanocrystal Superstructures,” and Yin will talk about “Two-Dimensional Additives for Stable and Efficient Perovskite Solar Cells.”

The Chasman Award encourages women to pursue careers in the science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) fields and honors the memory and scientific contributions of Renate Chasman (1932-1977), a noted physicist at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Her work influenced the design of particle accelerators around the world, including Brookhaven’s National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS) and its successor, NSLS-II.

Banerjee, Ning, and Yin will each receive $3,250. This year’s awards are funded by Brookhaven Science Associates (BSA), the company that operates Brookhaven Lab on behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy, as well as generous contributions from the Long Island Section of the American Nuclear Society (LIANS), NSLS-II, Human Resources Directorate, Energy and Photon Sciences Directorate, Nuclear and Particle Physics Directorate, Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN) Users Executive Committee, the NSLS-II Users Executive Committee, and Computational Science Initiative.

About the 2023 Recipients

Anushka Banerjee

Anushka Banerjee is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Stony Brook University. She received her Bachelor’s of Technology degree in Electronics and Communications Engineering from West Bengal University of Technology (India) in 2018. Working as a full-time graduate student since 2019 in Oleg Chubar’s research group at NSLS-II, her research primarily revolves around enhancing the timing performance of the Radia 3D magnetostatics code and utilizing it for comprehensive field calculations that are pertinent to accelerator magnets and insertion devices employed in NSLS-II. Currently, she is part of a team working on Laboratory Directed Research and Development projects for the proposed NSLS-II upgrade.

Apart from her research work, Anushka has taken on the role of mentoring students as part of the Graduate Women in Science and Engineering initiative at Stony Brook University. She has also served as the Secretary of the Indian Graduate Student Association for the academic year 2022-2023.

Yifan Ning

Yifan Ning is a Ph.D. candidate in the Chemistry Department at the University of Pennsylvania. She received her Bachelor's degree from the University of Science and Technology of China in 2017 and her Master’s degree from Northwestern University in 2018. She is now conducting her research under the supervision of Christopher B. Murray. Her research focuses on the functional ligands at the surface of nanocrystals and liquid crystal-nanoparticle hybrid materials.

Yifan enjoys spending spare time with her cat, Coffee. After she comes back from the university laboratory, Coffee welcomes her at the door and they enjoy a walk around the apartment.

Yifan Yin

Yifan Yin is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering at Stony Brook University. She holds a master’s degree from Stony Brook University and a bachelor’s degree from Beijing University of Chemical and Technology in China. Under the guidance of Prof. Miriam Rafailovich and Prof. Chang-Yong Nam, her research focuses on crystallization control and defect passivation to enhance the optoelectronic properties of hybrid perovskites.

During her Ph.D. studies, Yin developed a rigorous fabrication protocol for perovskite solar cell preparation in the CFN, which included precise control of environmental factors, material characterization, and advanced analytical techniques. To gain insights into the function of different additives incorporated in perovskite films, she employed a combination of electron and synchrotron X-ray techniques at CFN and NSLS-II.

Moving forward, her career goal is to utilize her academic training and practical experience to help develop scalable fabrication processes for perovskite solar cells. Unlocking the full potential of this technology holds great promise for creating a greener and more sustainable future.

Acknowledgments

This year’s award was administered by BWIS Officers Maria Chamizo-Llatas, Nuclear & Particle Physics Directorate, and Ed Sierra, Quality Management Office.

“I would like to congratulate Anushka, Yifan, and Yifan for their outstanding research related to NSLS-II and wish that this award will help them in their future scientific careers," Chamizo-Llatas said.

“In addition, Ed and I, on behalf of BWIS, extend our deep appreciation to the Chasman Review Committee members for their expert advice and thorough evaluation of the candidates. The committee members are Milinda Abeykoon (NSLS-II), Diane Cabelli (Chemistry), Raymond Fliller (C-AD), Masafumi Fukuto (NSLS-II) David Schlyer (Chemistry), and Peter Steinberg (Physics).”

“I am privileged to play a continuing part in the facilitation of the Chasman Award,” Sierra said. “I would like to thank Maria Chamizo-Llatas for her dedicated leadership, and Chris Weaver, of the Information Technology Division, for his assistance in managing the applicant data. I look forward to following the careers of Anushka, Yifan, and Yifan and their future exciting contributions to science.”    

BWIS, a nonprofit organization that supports and encourages the advancement of women in science and is open to all individuals, is funded by BSA.

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