Anshul Sharma, a graduate student in
Kent State University’s Chemical Physics
Interdisciplinary Program in the College of
Arts and Sciences, was awarded the
Silver Graduate Student Award at the
Materials Research Society’s 2015 Spring
Meeting in San Francisco, California.

Anshul Sharma, a graduate student in Kent State University’s Chemical Physics Interdisciplinary Program in the College of Arts and Sciences, was awarded the Silver Graduate Student Award at the Materials Research Society’s 2015 Spring Meeting in San Francisco, California. She was recognized for her presentation on “Visualizing Gold Nanoparticle Chirality via Nematic Liquid Crystals.”

According to the Materials Research Society, “the awards are intended to honor and encourage graduate students whose academic achievements and current materials research display a high order of excellence and distinction.” The Materials Research Society “seeks to recognize students of exceptional ability who show promise for future substantial achievement in materials research.”

Sharma, who relocated to Kent State’s Liquid Crystal Institute® in early 2012 from Canada, is currently co-supervised by Elda Hegmann, Ph.D., and Torsten Hegmann, Ph.D., both professors in the Chemical Physics Interdisciplinary Program. Originally from India, Sharma earned her bachelor’s degree in science from Government P.G. College Solan, Himachal Pradesh, India, and her master’s degree in chemistry from the National Institute of Technology, Jalandhar, Punjab, India. She then worked as a project associate at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India, for 18 months before joining Torsten Hegmann’s lab as a Ph.D. student at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada. When he moved to Kent State, Sharma also decided to move to Kent State to continue working with him.

“My move to Kent State to continue working for Drs. Hegmann is one of the best decisions I’ve made,” Sharma says. “I greatly appreciate their mentoring. I believe every graduate student is a hard worker, but it’s the right mentoring that makes the difference in shaping his or her career. Both my advisors have given me the necessary training that will prepare me to work in any university or research lab. It was this training that made me stand among top students from Ivy League universities and win this prestigious award.”

Sharma plans to graduate with her doctorate in the fall and hopes to work as a postdoctoral researcher at a national lab or university. Ultimately, she hopes to become a faculty member at a university.

For more information about the Materials Research Society’s Graduate Student Awards, visit www.mrs.org/spring-2015-gsa-talk-sessions.

For more information about Kent State’s Chemical Physics Interdisciplinary Program, visit www.lcinet.kent.edu/cpip.