Pant and Allen were former students of Mechanical Engineering (ME) professor Pierron, while Baumert and Choi are current PhD students under advisement ME professors Pierron and Graham, respectively.

In the paper, these Woodruff School researchers advanced the state-of-the-art in MEMS-based nanomechanics (the use of micromachines to measure the mechanical properties of nanomaterials) by designing MEMS devices that are capable of providing large amounts of elongation without any significant increase in temperature near the location of the nanospecimen. This constitutes an order of magnitude improvement with respect to previously published MEMS materials testing setups.

There were more than 130 papers published in the journal Experimental Mechanics in 2012. The Hetényi Award is given annually for the Best Research Paper published in Experimental Mechanics in a given year. “MEMS-Based Nanomechanics: Influence of MEMS Design on Test Temperature” was selected by the SEM Honors Committee from amongst a group of outstanding papers nominated for this award by the Experimental Mechanics Editorial Board. The selection of this paper is a well-deserved public recognition of the quality and thoroughness of the approach taken by Pierron and collaborators to this highly challenging problem.