University of Pittsburgh Excellence at M&M 2018



The University of Pittsburgh made an excellent showing at the 2018 Microscopy and Microanalysis (M&M) conference.

Dr. Judith C. Yang – William Kepler Whiteford Professor of chemical and petroleum engineering – was inducted into the 2018 fellowship class of the Microscopy Society of America (MSA), in recognition of her “world-leading research in gas-surface reactions, especially oxidation, and catalytic reactions using innovation ference.in situ microscopy techniques.”

Pitt students and postdocs also earned accolades for “outstanding papers contributed to the M&M meeting.” Henry Ayoola received an M&M Student Scholar Award for his paper “Correlative Structure-Bonding and Stability Studies of Pt/γ-Al2O3 Catalysts,” and Dr. Stephen House received an M&M Postdoctoral Scholar Award for his paper “In situ Insights into the Uncorking and Oxidative Decomposition Dynamics of Gold Nanoparticle Corked Carbon Nanotube Cups for Drug Delivery.” Henry Ayoola is a PhD student in Dr. Yang’s research group, where he explores the structure and dynamics of Pt/γ-Al2O3 catalysts at a fundamental level before and during catalytic reaction. Dr. House is a visiting research associate professor in the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering  Environmental is the principal research scientist for TEM Catalysis Consortium (ECC) at Pitt. His research is broadly focused, centered around the advanced structural characterization of dynamic nano-scale materials systems, particularly in catalysis.

In addition to these awards, Erica Stevens was elected to the position of President-Elect of the MSA Student Council (StC, https://www.microscopy.org/students/index.cfm ), and Dr. House was elected as Treasurer of the “Electron Microscopy in Liquids and Gases” MSA focused interest group. Erica Stevens is a 4th year PhD student in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, working with Dr. Markus Chmielus on additive manufacturing of magnetocaloric materials. The “EM in Liquids and Gases” group brings together leading figures, junior scientists, postdocs, and students involved with in situ environmental TEM to disseminate results, exchange ideas, and address the future needs and direction of this increasingly important field.