PULLMAN, Wash. - For the first time, a Washington State University student has received a Graduate Student Award from the Materials Research Society (MRS), a leading international organization in the field of materials research.
 
Afsoon Soudi, a doctoral student in physics, was among 23 students from institutions around the world selected for the award and then invited to present their research at the MRS spring meeting held earlier this month in San Francisco. MRS determined Soudi’s work on semiconductor nanowires and advanced scanning probe microscopy techniques to be both significant and timely.

Soudi received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Tehran and began her doctoral studies at WSU in 2007. She was awarded a Millennium Fellowship in 2008 and has collaborated with participants in the NSF-funded Research Undergraduate Experience program. Currently, she is a teaching assistant for Physics 202, Physics for Scientists and Engineers, as well as the secretary for the WSU student chapter of SPIE, an international society of optics and photonics.

Originally inspired by her high school physics teachers, Afsoon "loves physics because one can understand and interpret everything — even things one cannot see — through electronics, quantum, and optics.”
 
Recognition by MRS is based on the merits of exceptional abilities and promise for significant future achievement in materials research. Soudi credits the support and research insights of her advisor, Professor Yi Gu, in helping her achieve this milestone.

Media contacts:

* Afsoon Soudi, Department of Physics, afsoon.soudi@email.wsu.edu
* Joanna Steward, College of Sciences, jsteward@wsu.edu