Two UCLA Engineering postdocs win 2014 Chancellor’s Awards

Jun 6, 2014

By UCLA Samueli Newsroom

By Bill Kisliuk

Two UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science postdoctoral scholars are among the winners of the 2014 Chancellor’s Award for Postdoctoral Research at UCLA. Twenty-eight of UCLA’s 1,167 registered postdoctoral scholars were named finalists for this year’s awards. Six of the finalists work in UCLA Engineering labs.

Winner Mohammad Asghari is a post-doctoral scholar in the Photonics Laboratory of Bahram Jalali, professor of electrical engineering and bioengineering, and holder of the Northrop Grumman Endowed Opto-Electronic Chair in Electrical Engineering.

Asghari’s research interests are in applied optics, real-time instruments, signal processing and data sciences. He received his Ph.D. in 2011 from the University of Quebec. He plans to continue in teaching and research in the area of photonics.

Winner Huanping Zhou is a post-doctoral scholar in the laboratory of Yang Yang, a professor of materials science and engineering, and holder of the Carol and Lawrence E. Tannas Jr. Endowed Chair in Engineering. Zhou said her research interests are in “challenging the frontier of chemistry synthesis and materials design, particularly in energy harvesting and storage.”

She received her Ph.D. from Peking University in 2010 and plans to stay in academia, establishing a research group to make impacts in both science and industry.

Qingshan Wei, a postdoc in the lab of Aydogan Ozcan, Chancellor’s Professor in electrical engineering and bioengineering, earned an honorable mention.

Shamsul Arafin, a postdoc in the Device Research Laboratory of Raytheon Professor of Electrical Engineering Kang L. Wang; Magdalena Balonis-Sant, a postdoctoral in the lab of materials science and engineering professor Ioanna Kakoulli; and Giacomo Po, a post-doctoral scholar in the lab of mechanical and aerospace engineering professor Nasr Ghoniem, also were among the 28 nominees.

Winners receive a $5,000 prize. Those who earned an honorable mention receive a $1,000 prize.

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