Two graduate students, Mr. Yanzhong Pei of the Shanghai Institute of Ceramics (China) and Mr. Joshua Zide of UC Santa Barbara (US), met demanding standard to win the 2007 Goldsmid Award for Excellence in Research in Thermoelectrics by a Graduate Student. The Goldsmid Award, announced at the ICT2007 banquet, seeks to identify exceptional Ph.D. candidate graduate students who have made unusually notable contributions to thermoelectrics.

The 2007 award was sponsored by Marlow Industries, Inc. and the ITS and carries a cash award of US$1000 as well as an additional US$1000 to be used for travel and fees related to attending the ICT.

Profiles of the winners:

• Yanzhong Pei
  • For his work in novel alkaline-metal-filled skutterudites
  • Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
  • Thesis Advisor: Prof. Lidong Chen, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics
  • Selected publication:
    • Y. Z. Pei, L. D. Chen, W. Zhang, X. Shi, S. Q. Bai, X. Y. Zhao, Z. G. Mei, and X. Y. Li, "Synthesis and thermoelectric properties of K[sub y]Co[sub 4]Sb[sub 12]," Applied Physics Letters, vol. 89, pp. 221107-3, 2006.
  • Plans for the immediate future:
    • Investigating the different electrical and thermal transport properties for these new type skutterudite compounds, searching for new thermoelectric compounds.

• Joshua M. Zide
  • For his work on nanoscale engineering of novel semiconductor and composite electronic materials and electronic devices
  • UC Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA  USA
  • Thesis Advisor:  Art Gossard, UC Santa Barbara
  • Selected publications:
    • J. M. Zide, D. O. Klenov, S. Stemmer, A. C. Gossard, G. Zeng, J. E. Bowers, D. Vashaee, and A. Shakouri, "Thermoelectric power factor in semiconductors with buried epitaxial semimetallic nanoparticles," Applied Physics Letters, vol. 87, pp. 112102-3, 2005.
    • J. M. O. Zide, A. Kleiman-Shwarsctein, N. C. Strandwitz, J. D. Zimmerman, T. Steenblock-Smith, A. C. Gossard, A. Forman, A. Ivanovskaya, and G. D. Stucky, "Increased efficiency in multijunction solar cells through the incorporation of semimetallic ErAs nanoparticles into the tunnel junction," Applied Physics Letters, vol. 88, pp. 162103-3, 2006.
    •  W. Kim, J. Zide, A. Gossard, D. Klenov, S. Stemmer, A. Shakouri, and A. Majumdar, "Thermal Conductivity Reduction and Thermoelectric Figure of Merit Increase by Embedding Nanoparticles in Crystalline Semiconductors," Physical Review Letters, vol. 96, pp. 045901-4, 2006.
  • Plans for the immediate future:
    • Assistant Professor, EE Department, University of Delaware, continued involvement in TE research