Materials science and engineering graduate student wins Los Alamos Fellowship
Junyi Zhai, Virginia Tech a Ph.D. candidate in materials science and engineering, is selected for the Director's Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Los Alamos National Laboratories (LANL) in New Mexico.
Zhai, and nine other students from around the nation, was selected from more than 300 candidates that reflect a broad range of disciplines in science and engineering. The director’s postdoctoral fellows are selected based on the strengths of their academic accomplishments as well as the strength of their proposed research.
“Junyi made several important and original contributions during his thesis research at Virginia Tech,” says Dwight Viehland, Ph.D., professor of materials science and engineering. “His research efforts have resulted in 10 first author publications in quality peer-reviewed journals,” he said.
Zhai will collaborate with LANL scientists and engineers on fundamental and applied research on nanotechnology and microelectronic thin films.
“This is a very important opportunity for me,” says Zhai. “I can learn a great deal from the world-class scientists at LANL,” he said.
Established in 1943, LANL is the premier national security science laboratory. Its mission is to develop and apply science and technology in three areas:
- To ensure the safety, security, and reliability of the U.S. nuclear deterrent
- To reduce global threats
- To solve other emerging national security challenges.
Zhai is originally from the city of Nanjing, China, and earned a bachelor of science in chemistry and a master of science in materials science and engineering from Tsinghua University in Beijing.
