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FACSS Student Award & Tomas B. Hirschfield Scholar Award
FACSS is proud to support the development of the next generation of leaders in analytical science. Pre-doctoral students presenting at the conference are encouraged to submit applications for the FACSS Student Award and the Tomas Hirschfeld Scholar Award. Both awards recognize research excellence but highlight the different ways that this may be achieved.
The FACSS Student Award is given to the student who has furthered the state-of-the-art in their chosen field(s) and in so doing, advanced the understanding of important scientific or societal questions. The recipient will have a strong research record and be identifiable as an emerging leader in analytical chemistry.
The winner(s) of the Tomas Hirschfeld Scholar Award will best exemplify the extraordinary creativity of the award’s namesake, whose deep understanding of the chemistry and physics of measurement science allowed him to find new connections and applications that eluded most practitioners. The recipient(s) and their work will be seen as potentially defining the future practice of analytical chemistry.
Nominations
To be considered for either award, students must submit an abstract for oral presentation at SciX, then submit the following as a single PDF file:
- The application form (please check back in early 2022 for next year's application form)
- Two letters of nomination, including one by the student’s mentor
- A copy of the candidate’s résumé
- A copy of the candidate's graduate transcript
- Copies of reprints and/or preprints of research accomplished
Please submit all of the above in one combined PDF to scix@scixconference.org by the deadline.
If you have any questions or need help finding your Paper Submission ID, please contact us at scix@scixconference.org.
FACSS Student Award Recipient 2021
Vanessa Cupil-Garcia
Vanessa Cupil-Garcia is a 4th year Ph.D. Candidate in Dr. Tuan Vo-Dinh’s Group in the Department of Chemistry at Duke University. She was born in Tabasco, Mexico and came to the United States as a child. She graduated summa cum laude from Meredith College with degrees in chemistry and biology and an international studies minor. The Golden Door Scholars Program funded her undergraduate studies. She conducted a summer of research at the Georgia Institute of Technology under Dr. Stefan France where she synthesized indole carboxylates and worked on the carbon hydrogen functionalization of naphthalene diimide. She also worked at the Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) on quantifying the genetic variability in mitochondrial supercomplexes in D2 and B6 mice strains in Dr. Kari Buck’s laboratory. Her research at Duke University under the guidance of Dr. Vo-Dinh focuses on integrating nanotechnology and chemistry to develop diagnostic and therapeutic tools. She is currently synthesizing inorganic and organic nanomaterials for the treatment of cancers combined with immune checkpoint inhibitor drugs. She is also adapting inverse molecular sentinel sensors (iMS) for microRNA detection in plants for bioenergy purposes. During her time at Duke she has received the Kathleen Zielek Fellowship, the Duke Nanoscience Program Fellowship, and the Fitzpatrick Foundation Scholar. Her work has resulted in multiple peer-reviewed publications that she has presented at various local and national conferences.
She also mentors Latinx students as they pursue higher education and values scientific outreach. She has spearheaded multiple in person outreach programs, and during the pandemic helped move forward two projects enabling virtual outreach and take-home STEM kits. In her role as a volunteer with Siembra NC, she schedules COVID-19 vaccine appointments for non-English speakers.Tomas Hirschfeld Scholar RecipientS 2021
Grant Myres
Grant J. Myres is a fifth-year graduate student at the University of Utah. Grant earned a B.A. in chemistry from Luther College in 2017. In his undergraduate research under the direction of Olga Michels, Grant studied the effects of chemical modifications to photosensitizer scaffolds and the impact of these modifications on the association affinity with human serum albumin (HSA) using fluorescence spectroscopy. Following graduation, Grant moved out west to pursue a Ph.D in analytical chemistry in the lab of Joel M. Harris at the University of Utah. Grant’s research interests are focused on the development and applications of Raman spectroscopy to investigate and quantify biomolecular recognition interactions at solid/liquid interfaces.
In Grant’s thesis research, he has developed a quantitative, label-free, and structurally informative heterogeneous assay using confocal-Raman microscopy to probe reactions of DNA immobilized on the interior surfaces of individual porous silica particles. This development has enabled the quantitative detection of differences in target strand length, base-content, and conformation. This methodology has also revealed cation-dependent changes in interfacial DNA aptamer structure, which has implications in providing fundamental insight into the chemistry that governs the response of DNA aptamer-based biosensors. Grant’s future research involves investigating the association of small-molecule therapeutics with immobilized duplex-DNA and characterizing both association affinities and primary sequence-specificity while simultaneously gaining insight into how the association reactions modulate both small-molecule and DNA structural conformations.
Grant currently has 2 publications and has presented his work at 7 national conferences and 2 invited seminars. Since starting graduate school, Grant has won several awards for both research and teaching: University of Utah Teaching Assistant of the Semester Award (2019), Society of Applied Spectroscopy Student Poster Award (2019, 2020), and a FACSS Student Poster Award (2019).
Nicolás Morato
Nicolás Morato is a Ph.D. candidate in Analytical Chemistry at Purdue University under the mentorship of Prof. R. Graham Cooks. Nicolás was born in Bogotá, Colombia, where he attended Universidad de los Andes and obtained two bachelor’s degrees, one in Chemistry (2017) and one in Industrial Engineering (2018), with cum laude and summa cum laude distinctions, respectively. During his undergraduate studies he worked under the supervision of Prof. Chiara Carazzone investigating the intra-species variation in the venoms and alkaloid extracts of several Colombian specimens, and with Prof. Ivan Mura on the stochastic modelling of biochemical processes. Before starting his graduate career, Nicolás was a Summer Undergraduate Fellow at Purdue University (2017) working with Prof. Jonathan Wilker on the characterization of oyster adhesive, as well as an Instructor (2018) in the Department of Chemistry at Universidad de los Andes.
During his graduate studies, Nicolás’ research has focused on the development of ambient ionization methods for the rapid and simple analysis of complex samples, avoiding sample preparation and separation steps which are commonplace in chemical analysis. His initial efforts were oriented towards forensic applications such as in situ drug testing, whereas his current research is mostly related to high throughput analysis utilizing desorption electrospray ionization (DESI). Some of his work in the latter area has involved the development of label-free quantitative enzymatic assays, the rapid profiling of microorganisms, and the screening of organic reactions to study catalysis and microdroplet phenomena. Nicolás’ work has resulted in more than 10 peer-reviewed publications and several honors including the Charles H. Viol Memorial Fellowship, the Eastman Summer Fellowship in Analytical Chemistry, and the ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry Graduate Fellowship.
Past recipients
2020
Not awarded
2019
FACSS Student Award
Ewelina Mistek, SUNY Albany
Tomas Hirschfeld Scholar Awards
Shachi Mittal, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Erika Portero, University of Maryland College Park
2018
FACSS Student Award
Edward D. Hoegg, Clemson University
Tomas Hirschfeld Scholar Awards
Katie Spalding, University of Strathclyde
2017
FACSS Student Award
Nicholas Riley, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Tomas Hirschfeld Scholar Awards
Aboualizadeh Ebrahim, University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee
Paidi Santosh, Johns Hopkins University
2016
FACSS Student Award
Mustafa Unal, Case Western Reserve University
Tomas Hirschfeld Scholar Awards
Kyle Doty, SUNY Albany
Mario Saucedo-Espinosa,Rochester Institute of Technology
2015
FACSS Student Awards
Marie Richard-Lacroix, University of Montreal
Lynn X. Zhang, Clemson University
Tomas Hirschfeld Scholar Awards
Stephanie DeJong, University of South Carolina
Patrik K. Johansson, University of Washington
2014
FACSS Student Award
James R. Hands, University of Central Lancashire
Tomas Hirschfeld Scholar Awards
Menglian Zhang, Ohio University
Andrew Schwartz, Indiana University
2013
FACSS Student Award
Larry Gibson, University of Notre Dame
Tomas Hirschfeld Scholar Awards
Gloria Sheynkman, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Bai Nie, Michigan State University
2012
FACSS Student Award
Ali Khumaeni, University of Fukui, Japan
Tomas Hirschfeld Scholar Awards
Nathaniel Gomer, University of South Carolina
Rohith Reddy, University of Illinois
2011
FACSS Student Award
Yun Zhang, Ohio University
Tomas Hirschfeld Scholar Award
Olivier R. Bolduc, University of Montreal
2010
FACSS Student Award
Jacob Shelley, Indiana University
Tomas Hirschfeld Scholar Awards
Ishan Barman, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Anil Kumaar Kodali, University of Illinois
2009
FACSS Student Award
Yuze Sun, University of Missouri
Tomas Hirschfeld Scholar Award
Matthew Lockett, University of Wisconsin
2008
FACSS Student Award
David Strasfeld, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Tomas Hirschfeld Scholar Awards
Christopher R. Field, University of Illinois
Matthew Keller, Vanderbilt University
2007
FACSS Student Award
Sen Li, Purdue University
Tomas Hirschfeld Scholar Awards
Matthew Schulmerich, University of Michigan
Junrong Zheng, Stanford University
2006
FACSS Student Award
Daniel B. Bassil, University of Missouri, Columbia
Tomas Hirschfeld Scholar Awards
Andrea Tao, University of California, Berkeley
Tim M. Brewer, Clemson University
2005
FACSS Student Award
Allen E. Haddrell, Simon Fraser University
Tomas Hirschfeld Scholar Award
Jean-Francois Masson, Arizona State University
2004
FACSS Student Award
Lawrence W. Dick, Jr., Duke University
Tomas Hirschfeld Scholar Award
Ryan J. Priore, University of South Carolina
2003
FACSS Student Award
Yongfen Chen, University of New Orleans
Tomas Hirschfeld Scholar Award
Brandon T. Ruotolo, Texas A&M University
2002
FACSS Student Award
James H. Barnes IV, Indiana University
Tomas Hirschfeld Scholar Award
Christian Pellerin, University Laval
2001
FACSS Student Award
Heather Peters, Wake Forest University
Tomas Hirschfeld Scholar Award
Michael Doescher, University of South Carolina
2000
FACSS Student Award
Christopher D. Zangmeister, University of Arizona
Tomas Hirschfeld Scholar Award
Dimitri Pappas, University of Florida
1999
FACSS Student Award
Renee JiJi, Arizona State University
Tomas Hirschfeld Scholar Award
Sara L. McIntosh, Duke University
1998
FACSS Student Award
John A. McLean, George Washington University
Tomas Hirschfeld Scholar Award
Susan L. R. Barker, University of Michigan
1997
FACSS Student Award
Bryan C. Castle, University of Florida
Tomas Hirschfeld Scholar Awards
Darren Dunphy, University of Arizona
Radislav Potyrailo, Indiana University
1996
FACSS Student Award
Christine M. Ingersoll, State University of New York at Buffalo
Tomas Hirschfeld Scholar Awards
Paul Edmiston, University of Arizona
Steven R. Emory, Indiana University
Dana M. Spence, Michigan State University
1995
FACSS Student Award
David E. Cliffel, University of Texas at Austin
Tomas Hirschfeld Scholar Awards
Curtis D. Cleven, Purdue University
Robert J. Willicut, Louisiana State University
Jeremy M. Shaver, Duke University
1994
FACSS Student Award
Diana S. West, Wright State University
Tomas Hirschfeld Scholar Awards
Jeanette K. Rice, State University of New York at Buffalo
W. Russell Everett, University of Arkansas
1993
FACSS Student Award
Michael Ruberto, Seton Hall University
Tomas Hirschfeld Scholar Awards
Ray Bakhtiar, North Dakota State University
Sheryl Ann Tucker, University of North Texas
1992
FACSS Student Award
Evelyn Guizhen Su, University of Connecticut
Tomas Hirschfeld Scholar Awards
Vasilis Gregoriou, Duke University
Patrick A. Limbach, Ohio State University
Jeff Mazzeo, Northeastern University
1991
FACSS Student Award
Rebecca M. Dittmar, Duke University
Tomas Hirschfeld Scholar Awards
Scott E. Van Bramer, University of Colorado
Marilyn O’Grady, Virginia Polytechnic Institute
Chris G. Gill, University of British Columbia
1990
FACSS Student Award
Richard L. Irwin, University of Connecticut
Tomas Hirschfeld Scholar Awards
Paul Shiundu, University of British Columbia
1989
FACSS Student Award
Patrick J. Treado, University of Michigan
Tomas Hirschfeld Scholar Awards
Renato Zenobi, Stanford University
Mingda Wang, Ohio State University
1988
FACSS Student Award
George Yefchak, Michigan State University
Tomas Hirschfeld Scholar Awards
James T. Cronin, University of Delaware
Sue E. Zhu, Villanova University
1987
Tomas Hirschfeld Scholar Awards
Jonathan V. Sweedler, University of Arizona
Brad Tenge, University of Washington
Peter Wentzell, Michigan State University