Postdoc honored for carbon nanotube research

11:58 a.m., Oct. 20, 2004--Erik Thostenson has been named recipient of the first Hayashi Memorial International Award. The award is given in honor of Tsuyoshi Hayashi, one of Japan’s pioneering researchers in composite materials.

Thostenson, a postdoctoral researcher at the University, received his master’s and doctoral degrees at UD in 1999 and 2004, respectively. He works with Tsu-Wei Chou, Pierre S. du Pont Chair of Engineering, on processing, characterization and modeling of carbon nanotube-reinforced composites.

The potential applications of carbon nanotubes, which measure from less than one to a few nanometers (one billionth of a meter) in diameter, range from molecular electronics and field emission displays to nanocomposites. While the superior properties of carbon nanotubes are well-known, their integration into practical materials and devices requires a fundamental understanding of their process-structure-property relations. Thostenson’s award-winning work has been aimed at developing this understanding.

Thostenson also was the recipient of the 2004 Allan P. Colburn Prize for outstanding dissertation in the engineering and mathematical sciences, the 2004 Roy L. McCullough Scholars Award and the 2002 Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering (SAMPE) Outstanding Graduate Student Award.

“Prof. Hayashi was a pioneering researcher in composite materials and a co-winner of the first Medal of Excellence in Composite Materials, an award given by CCM since 1982,” Jack Gillespie, director of UD’s Center for Composite Materials, said. “It’s very fitting that one of our students was chosen to win the inaugural Hayashi Memorial International Award.”

For the past 20 years, the Japan Society for Composite Materials has presented the National Hayashi Award to outstanding young Japanese researchers in the field of composite materials. The inaugural Hayashi Memorial International Award was given this year at the 11th United States-Japan conference on composite materials to recognize promising international researchers. The award is funded through a donation from Hayashi.

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