Youxing Chen, Ph.D. student in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Texas A&M University, received the 2015 Distinguished Graduate Student Award for Excellence in doctoral research from The Association of Former Students at Texas A&M.
Chen is completing his doctoral degree under the supervision of Dr. Xinghang Zhang, associate professor. Chen will be honored at a ceremony on Monday (April 27) in the Memorial Student Center.
Chen’s research in Zhang’s nanometal group focuses on understanding radiation damage mechanisms in nanolayered and nanotwinned metals, which can be applied to design radiation tolerant materials in advanced nuclear reactors. Chen has published 20 peer-reviewed articles while at Texas A&M, including six first-author articles in premier materials science journals, such as Nature Communications and Acta Materialia. During his Ph.D. studies at Texas A&M, Chen has given nine oral presentations at international conferences organized by the Materials Research Society (MRS) and the Minerals, Metals and Materials Society (TMS). Chen will work as a postdoctoral research associate at Los Alamos National Laboratory after graduation.
“Chen is a hardworking and talented graduate student. He has accumulated a variety of research skills, including transmission electron microscopy, magnetron sputtering, nanoindentation, various types of ion irradiations, and molecular dynamics simulations,” said Zhang. “Chen also had the opportunity to visit and collaborate with scientists at Los Alamos, Argonne and Sandia National Laboratories during his Ph.D. studies. He will be a promising candidate for academia in the near future.”
The Association of Former Students chooses up to 15 graduate students each year to receive a Distinguished Graduate Student Award for excellence in one of three categories: doctoral research, master’s research, and teaching. Student nominations are supplied by faculty advisers or departments, an honor and accomplishment in itself due to strenuous eligibility requirements. A panel of reviewers, made up of faculty and administrators, choose award recipients from a large number of nominations.