Kelsey Hatzell
Two Drexel Materials alumni have been awarded ONR’s highly competitive 2023 Young Investigator Awards. Both alums have won in ONR’s “Mission Capable, Persistent and Survivable Naval Platforms” category, code 33.
Kelsey Hatzell (PhD ‘15, advisor: Gogotsi), assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Princeton University, was awarded for her project “Field-assisted sintering or control over polymorphs in polycrystalline lithium ion conducting ceramics.” Her research is focused on emerging decarbonization technologies for transportation, fuel, and direct air capture applications.
Prineha Narang
Prineha Narang (BS ‘11), professor and Howard Reiss Career Chair in physical sciences at UCLA, won for her project “Enabling dissipation-less electronics with hydrodynamic transport in materials.” She leads an interdisciplinary group focusing on the intersection of computational science and quantum theory.
The Office of Naval Research annually awards a shared sum of over $17 million to twenty-five young scientists. The funding will support Narang, Hatzell and other recipients’ early career research to “conduct innovative scientific research that will benefit science and technology for the US Marine Corps.” Prior academic achievement and potential to make significant scientific breakthroughs are key award criteria.