4/17/2025 Jackson Brunner
Written by Jackson Brunner
Doctoral candidate Jiahui Li of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at The Grainger College of Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, has been awarded two prestigious honors at the recent Materials Research Society (MRS) meeting: the Graduate Student Gold Award and the Arthur Nowick Graduate Student Award.
Li, a student of Professor Qian Chen, earned the Gold Award for her groundbreaking research on self-assembly of nanoparticles into chiral and mechanical metamaterials. Her work demonstrates an innovative approach to developing large-scale functional metamaterials through the spontaneous organization of sub-100 nanometer tetrahedral nanoparticles.
"Nanoparticles hold immense potential regarding their versatility in shape, size, composition and property," Li explained. "By understanding and further engineering their assembly into specific architectures, we can create new classes of optical and mechanical metamaterials, with very low energy input and high efficiency."
The Arthur Nowick Graduate Student Award recognizes Li's exceptional contributions to teaching and mentorship. She has guided numerous undergraduate and graduate students across topics including nanoparticles, electron microscopy and biological imaging, while also serving as a teaching assistant and guest lecturer for over 200 students.
Li is the first Illinois materials student to win the Nowick award. Her achievements add to an impressive collection of accolades, including the Mavic Future Faculty Fellow, Langmuir Student Award, and PPG-Materials Research Laboratory Graduate Research Assistantship.
Illinois Grainger Engineering Affiliations
Qian Chen is an Illinois Grainger Engineering professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and is affiliated with the Materials Research Laboratory, the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, the Department of Chemistry, the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and the Carle Illinois College of Medicine. She serves as an investigator for Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Chicago and holds the Racheff Faculty Scholar appointment.