Sandia researcher wins career achievement award from Asian technical society

The Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers has selected Sandia National Laboratories materials scientist Hongyou Fan to receive its 2022 Career Achievement Award.

“It is evident that you embody the reason SASE created this category, and we are proud to present you this award,” wrote the organization’s CEO and Executive Director Khanh Vu in the society’s notification message.

The strong endorsement is confirmed by Fan’s many technical papers, awards and patents, appointment to scientific societies and outreach to students.

Still, in an interview, he waves his hand dismissively at a list of his achievements, which include 138 published papers in his 25-year career. “Everything I’ve done has been done with the help of other people,” he said. “You can’t rely on just yourself.”

As a case in point, he mentions his project to create new materials by using pressure to induce coalescence of different materials. Due to a chance meeting with managers in another group and their subsequent willingness to support the project, the work went from a productive but time-consuming method — using pressure from diamond anvils to force atoms into place — to a rapid and more useful method by using magnetic pressure (the same as the force generated by Sandia’s Z machine, the most powerful producer of the highest dynamic pressure on the planet) to in effect lock new structures into place.  “Now, instead of waiting days as pressure from my diamond anvil takes effect, I can create new in materials in 300 nanoseconds,” he said.

Read more in the complete news release.

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