The Materials Research Society (MRS) announced the winners of the Graduate Student Awards on Wednesday, April 11, during the 2012 MRS Spring Meeting in San Francisco. Twenty-three graduate students were recognized for their academic achievements and current materials research, which exhibit a high level of excellence and distinction. GT Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) graduate student Kara Evanoff was the recipient of a Gold Award.

Kara is a fourth year graduate student in MSE at Georgia Tech. As an undergraduate at Duquesne University (Pittsburgh, PA), she studied Physics and Mathematics. Afterwards, she earned a Master of Education and certification to teach high school Physics. Kara's research  focuses on the development of high capacity electrodes containing carbon and silicon nanomaterials for Lithium-ion batteries. For this work, she is co-advised by Dr. Thomas Fuller (Georgia Tech, ChBE), Dr. Jud Ready (Georgia Tech, MSE and GTRI, EOSL), and Dr. Gleb Yushin (Georgia Tech, MSE).

Of the 105 applications processed this year, the 23 finalists were chosen on the merits of exceptional abilities and promise for significant future achievement in materials research. Gold or Silver Awards were decided based on oral or poster presentations given on the afternoon of Tuesday, April 10. The Graduate Student Awards were presented at the awards ceremony Wednesday evening in the San Francisco Marriott Marquis. Prizes consisted of $400 and a presentation plaque for the Gold Award winners and $200 and a certificate for the Silver Award winners.