Chemistry grad turns in gold-medal doctoral performance

Chemistry grad turns in gold-medal doctoral performance

Soon after taking up graduate study, Nick Vukotic was drawn into sessions brainstorming a problem that had eluded his advisor Stephen Loeb—and others around the world—for years. Dr. Vukotic’s design solution led to a cover article in Nature Chemistry that is now ranked as the most-accessed article of May 2012 in any chemistry journal.

His creativity and problem-solving ability saw Vukotic complete his doctorate in chemistry with a grade average of 96 percent, earning him the Governor General’s Gold Medal for the highest academic standing at the graduate level among his cohort. He will receive the award during the first session of Convocation at the St. Denis Centre on Saturday, October 17.

Vukotic received his BSc in 2009, then began Master’s studies before early transfer to a PhD program. He received graduate scholarships from 2009 to 2014 and the Ontario Graduate Scholarship in 2009 and 2010; the NSERC Canada Graduate Master’s Scholarship in 2010 and 2011; and the NSERC Graduate Doctoral Scholarship from 2011 to 2014. He is the author of 16 publications in refereed journals and a book chapter. Four more manuscripts based on his work are currently in progress.

Serving a post-doctoral fellowship under the Ontario Centres of Excellence TalentEdge program, Vukotic works on the development of x-ray diffraction instrumentation for Proto Manufacturing.

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Aaron Rossini awarded Governor General's Gold Medal

Congratulations to Aaron Rossini, who was awarded the Governor General's Gold Medal for top standing as a graduating Ph.D. student at the University of Windsor. Aaron worked in Prof. Rob Schurko's solid-state NMR research group; he has 11 peer-reviewed publications and 31 academic presentations at local, national and international conferences. He was awarded a Marie-Curie Fellowship, and is currently working at the Ecole Normale Superieure in Lyon, France, in the research group of Prof. Lyndon Emsley. His wife, Erin, who has a degree in oenology, is currently working at a vinyard in Provence; they are both enjoying their time in France.

To read about how Erin and Aaron met, click here to read the Daily News Story.

Hiyam Hamaed is awarded the Governor General's Gold Medal

Although she enjoys all the sciences, Hiyam Hamaed chose to specialize in chemistry because it has so many applications to everyday life.

"I love chemistry because it goes beyond numbers—you can do it by hand, you can touch it, you can feel it," says the doctoral graduate, who volunteered for years performing a chemistry magic show for local schoolchildren. "I love to show everybody that chemistry is fun."

Dr. Hamaed received the Governor General's Gold Medal as the top graduate student in her cohort at Convocation ceremonies on Oct. 17, 2010. She received her B.Sc. with distinction in chemistry from the University of Windsor in 2005. She began graduate studies at the Master’s level in September 2005 and transferred to the Ph.D. program in 2006, completing her doctorate in June with a grade point average of 12.4 over her graduate career.

Her graduate supervisor, Robert Schurko, describes her as passionate about the science."She loves the work. That sort of attitude carries through in what she does," he says.

He points to her idea to use nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy to distinguish between polymorphic forms of pharmaceuticals."She pushed us to think outside of the box," Dr. Schurko says. "Four people are now working on a project she started."

Read more about this story on the UWindsor Daily News website