September 22, 2015

Physics PhD receives Chorafas prize

Li Yi (Physics PhD ’14) was confirmed by the Chorafas Foundation to receive the 2015 D.N. Chorafas Foundation Prize. Yi’s PhD dissertation, “Study of Quark Gluon Plasma by Particle Correlations in Heavy Ion Collisions,” which was supervised by Fuqiang Wang, professor of physics, focused on experimental high-energy nuclear physics.

Yi received her BS in physics from the Department of Modern Physics at the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, China. She is now a postdoctoral associate at the Wright Nuclear Structure Lab at Yale University. She was chosen by a faculty committee as the Purdue nominee from a field of 46 nominees. Yi will use the $5,000 award to support travel to international conferences to present her research.

The four other Purdue PhD finalists were:

Yi-Chun Chen (ME PhD), advisor: Qingyan Chen, the Reilly Professor of Mechanical Engineering

Elcin Icten (ChE PhD), advisors: Gintaras Reklaitis, the Burton and Kathryn Gedge Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering, and Zoltan Nagy, professor of chemical engineering.

Blake Rankin (Chemistry PhD), advisor: Dor Ben-Amotz, professor of chemistry

Wenhan Zhu (Chemistry PhD), advisor: Zhao-Qing Luo, professor of biological sciences

The Swiss-based Chorafas Foundation awards outstanding dissertation research in a wide range of disciplines, including physical and life sciences, engineering, and interdisciplinary research. Melba Crawford, associate dean of engineering for research for the College of Engineering, says the Chorafas Foundation welcomes a broad spectrum of nominations that span disciplines campus-wide, and its awards provide much-needed support for early career post-doctoral researchers.