UofM Physicist Xiao Shen Receives Prestigious Early Career Research Award

June 17, 2016- Dr. Xiao Shen, assistant professor of Physics and Materials Science at the University of Memphis, has been named a winner of the 2016 Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award by Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) for his work on novel optical materials.

This highly competitive $5,000 matching award is given annually to select faculty during the first two years of their initial university appointment to support promising new lines of research and promote collaboration with Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers. Shen was one of 35 recipients selected from 132 candidates nominated by ORAU members. He is only the second UofM faculty member to receive this award.

Shen's research focuses on theory and computation of a range of materials for electronics, optoelectronics and energy. His Powe Award project will explore structural and optical properties of a novel two-dimensional material, Si2Te3, with practical applications for advanced electronic devices. He will collaborate with Dr. Matthew Chisholm, group leader of the Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy team at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

This one-year award will help Shen further his research and support future proposals to federal agencies such as the U.S. National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy.

"This is a great honor for Dr. Shen and the work he is doing here and validates the quality of the superb young faculty who are joining us at the University of Memphis," said vice president for Research Andrew Meyers.

Shen earned his PhD in physics from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and completed a post-doctoral research appointment at Vanderbilt University prior to joining the UofM faculty last August.

For more information, contact Deborah Hernandez at dherndz@memphis.edu.

FOR MORE INFORMATION
Gabrielle Maxey
901.678.2135
gmaxey@memphis.edu