Weiss named a Blavatnik National Awards finalist for third straight year

CBES senior investigator Emily Weiss has been named a finalist for the 2020 Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientists, which offer the largest unrestricted awards of their kind for early career scientists and engineers. She joins fellow Northwestern University researchers William Dichtel and Julius Lucks among the 31 finalists recognized nationally this year.

The finalists are considered to be some of America’s most important young scientific researchers aged 42 years or younger, driving the next generation of innovation by addressing today’s most complex and intriguing scientific questions. 

There are 10 finalists in each of three categories: life sciences, chemistry and physical sciences and engineering. The 2020 Blavatnik National Laureates, one from each category, will be announced on July 22. Each laureate will receive a cash prize of $250,000. 

Weiss, the Mark and Nancy Ratner Professor of Chemistry at the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, is a finalist in chemistry for the third consecutive year. A physical chemist, Weiss conducts transformative, cross-disciplinary work using quantum dots, nanoscale semiconductor particles. She uses quantum dots to study light-driven chemical reactions, biological processes on ultra-fast timescales, chemical systems that are out of equilibrium and new ways to transform insulating materials into conductors.

Read the full press release from Northwestern Now.