Awards > Focus Topic Awards > Fundamental Discoveries in Heterogeneous Catalysis (HC)

Fundamental Discoveries in Heterogeneous Catalysis (HC) Focus Topic


The Fundamental Discoveries in Heterogeneous Catalysis (HC) Focus Topic is pleased to announce The Graduate Student Presentation Awards (GSPA), supported by The Journal of Physical Chemistry. These are competitive awards that will be given to the top graduate student (or PhD work) presentations in the Heterogeneous Catalysis Focus Topic sessions at the Annual Symposium. Awardees will be announced at the end of the final HC Focus Topic session and will receive an award certificate and a cash prize. 

To Enter: In addition to submitting an abstract to the Annual Symposium, students should email both a copy of their submitted abstract and a 1-paragraph statement of why they are excited about their PhD work to: baberae@jmu.edu, by May 17, 2019. Finalists will be selected from the applications submitted by the deadline. The student presentations will be judged based on the scientific merit of the presented work, the presentation, and the post-presentation discussion. The award committee consists of members of the HC committee and other senior members of the community present during the meeting. The HC Focus Topic Committee gratefully acknowledges The Journal of Physical Chemistry, an ACS journal, for sponsoring the award. The award will be offered for the third time at the 2019 meeting in Columbus, OH.  
The 2021 winners were sponsored by The Journal of Physical Chemistry, The Journal of Chemical Physics and the Journal of Vacuum and Science Technology A:

Platinum Awards for Outstanding Presentation
  • Lena Haager, TU Wien, Austria
  • Ryan Hannagan, Tufts University
  • Mahesh Krishna Prabhu, Leiden University
Gold Awards for Excellence
  • S. Elizabeth Harman, University of Washington
  • Jindong Kang, Stony Brook University/Brookhaven National Laboratory
  • Daniel Tinney, Tufts University

















The 2019 winner was sponsored by the Journal of Physical Chemistry A/B/C:
  • Zhongtian Mao, University of Washington
Zhongtian Mao


















Picture left to right are Zhongtian Mao, Ashleigh Baber (HC Chair), Líney Árnadóttir (HC Chair)
Journal of Physical Chemistry



The 2018 Winners were sponsored by Hiden, the Journal of Chemical Physics, and the Journal of Physical Chemistry A/B/C.
  • Sara Blomberg, Lund University
  • Sara Isbill, University of Tennessee Knoxville
  • Timothy Gorey, University of Utah
Pictured left to right are Dan Killelea (HC Chair), Sara Blomberg, Sara Isbill, Pat Thiel (J. Chem. Phys.), Ashleigh Baber (HC Chair)


















Pictured left to right are Dan Killelea (HC Chair), Sara Blomberg, Sara Isbill, Pat Thiel (J. Chem. Phys.), Ashleigh Baber (HC Chair)

Hiden Analytical



AIP Journal of Chemical Physics



Journal of Physical Chemistry



The 2017 Winners were sponsored by Surface Science and RHK Technology:
  • Wei Chang, Univ. Illinois Urbana-Champaign
  • Jacob Fester, Aarhus University
  • Dipna Patel, Tufts University
RHK Technology



Surface Science