A hearty round of applause for our 2023 Award Winners. We continue to be impressed by the terrific work of our awardees. These individuals were celebrated at the annual RTNN Awards and Appreciation Dinner last month, which was held at BoxyardRTP.
2023 RTNN Student Awards
The RTNN Student Outreach award recognizes a student for exemplary leadership, initiative, and ongoing commitment to the mission of expanding access to RTNN nanotechnology user facilities.
- Winston Lindqwister (Duke University) has been an RTNN Student Ambassador for over 3 years now and has been an invaluable member of the outreach programs that reach various communities, including rural outreach missions to tribal communities, Girl Scouts STEM Day, and the UNC Wonder Connection, which helps bring fun and engaging STEM activities to young inpatients at UNC hospitals.
- Morgan Heckman (Duke University) is relatively new to the RTNN Outreach mission, but has been intently engaged since seeking out a way to be involved in STEM outreach after arriving at Duke in November 2022. Morgan is already helping at numerous RTNN outreach events on her nights and weekends, as well as mentoring a first-gen/low-income URM student that she helped recruit into her graduate advisor’s research laboratory.
- Kathleen Bordewieck (NC State University) is part of a group of students involved with RTNN outreach from the NC State College of Education, where her experience and participation over the past three years has helped continuously ensure the success of our Nano Innovations Challenge and NanoDays outreach events, as well as assisting with the RET research program in its execution.
- Keith Markham (NC State University) is an Electrical & Computer Engineering doctoral candidate who has excelled enough in nanofabrication staff that he has become a leader in the research group he is part of and also has begun helping NNF staff with facility needs within the NNF in a time of considerable growth and changes by helping develop SOPs and set up new equipment.
2023 Collaborative Research Award
Akash Singh (Duke)
Faculty Collaborators: David Mitzi (Duke), Harald Ade (NC State)
Research Participants: Yongshin Kim (Duke), Reece Henry (NC State)
Unlocking Glass Formation in Halide Perovskites: Integrating Ultrafast Calorimetry and Multifaceted Characterization for Phase Change Applications
This project explores the groundbreaking discovery of glass formation in metal halide perovskites (MHPs), materials previously studied mainly in their crystalline form. By demonstrating the glassy state in a specific MHP composition (1-MeHa2PbI4), this research opens new applications beyond photovoltaics, including memory and photonic devices. Using ultrafast calorimetry to capture the rapid vitrification and crystallization processes, the study reveals how slight organic loss stabilizes the glassy state. Conducted collaboratively by teams at Duke and NC State universities, the work leverages advanced techniques and facilities in North Carolina’s Research Triangle to further expand the functional potential of MHPs in next-generation technologies.
Outcome of the Project
1. The obtained results in the project have been recently published in the “Journal of
American Chemical Society”, ACS publications.
Paper Title: “Study of Glass Formation and Crystallization Kinetics in a 2D Metal Halide
Perovskite Using Ultrafast Calorimetry”
DOI: 10.1021/jacs.3c06342
Publication Date (Web): August 08, 2023
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jacs.3c06342
2. The obtained results from the project have also been presented at two conferences (oral
talks):
a) 2023 Materials Research Society fall meeting and exhibit, Boston on November 28, 2023
titled ‘Glass formation in Metal Halide Perovskite using Ultrafast Calorimetry’.
b) 2023 Carolina Science Symposium, Raleigh on November 17, 2023, titled ‘Glass
formation in Metal Halide Perovskite using Ultrafast Calorimetry’.
3. The work was further highlighted in the international magazine ‘Perovskite-Info’ on
August 16, 2023, titled ‘Researchers deepen understanding of glass formation and
crystallization kinetics in 2D metal halide perovskites’.
https://www.perovskite-info.com/researchers-deepen-understanding-glass-formation-andcrystallization-kinetics
