Dr. Ökten Üngör

The Ohio State University

Dr. Ökten Üngör earned her Ph.D. from Florida State University under Prof. Michael Shatruk, developing hybrid materials that combine spin crossover with organic radical anions. As a postdoctoral researcher in Prof. Joseph Zadrozny's group, she has focused on design strategies for ⁵⁹Co NMR thermometry, using molecular symmetry and chemical control of molecular vibrations to tune the thermal sensitivity of magnetic resonance spectra. That work produced the first observation of a nuclear spin with the thermal sensitivity of an electron spin, rivaling the NV center qubit (JACS), and the first method to amplify thermal sensitivity through structural symmetry (Inorg. Chem. Front.). Since the group's move to Ohio State, she has taken up electron paramagnetic resonance, studying forbidden singlet-to-triplet transitions in copper(II) dimers while helping build new EPR infrastructure at OSU. She has twenty-five publications to date.

Ökten is also a gifted communicator and mentor. She adapts effortlessly between audiences — new students, group meetings, conference talks — and is regularly asked to stand in at lecture, where she consistently earns praise from students. Her mentorship was recognized with an ACS Leadership in Mentoring Award in 2024, and her collaborative instincts show in the research partnerships she has built across Ohio and beyond and in the user facility grants she has written. Outside of the lab it Okten likes traveling, contemporary cinema, reading, and learning new languages.

AVS Ohio is proud to announce the call for nominations for our inaugural Distinguished Industrial Scientist Award. This honor recognizes outstanding scientists and engineers who have made significant impacts within industrial R&D. The award will be presented at the 2026 AVS Ohio Symposium and Poster Session.

Dr. Michael Wolf

Battelle

Senior Quantum Scientist

AVS Ohio is excited to recognize and celebrate the career of two scientists who have made outstanding contributions to the advancement of science, mentorship, and leadership within Ohio's STEM community, particularly in areas aligned with the mission of AVS: Science and Technology of Materials, Interfaces, and Processing.

Prof. Leigh Smith

University of Cincinnati

Leigh is the complete package of excellence – excellence in ground-breaking research, excellence in teaching in innovative and effective ways, and excellence in departmental leadership during challenging times.  

His teaching excellence has won him an “Innovative Uses of Technology in Teaching Award (2011) and the earlier A&S Edith C. Alexander Award for Teaching Excellence (1998).   He was also elected as a Fellow of the Academy for Teaching and Learning, University of Cincinnati (2013).   His teaching efforts resulted in a dramatic decrease in the DWF rates of first-year physics courses, which other instructors have emulated. 

His excellence in research is reflected by his long-term support from the National Science Foundation and his prolific output with more than 200 journal publications with more than 4000 citations on the optical characterization of semiconductor nanostructures ranging from quantum dots to nanowires.  One also needs to recognize his mentoring of many PhD students here as well.  Locally, this work resulted in his election as a Fellow of the UC’s Graduate School (2010).  In 2016 he co-wrote, by invitation, a chapter of Volume 94 of the long-running series Semiconductors and Semimetals, Semiconductor Nanowires II: Properties and Applications, entitled “Optical Properties of Semiconductor Nanowires: Insights into Band Structure and Carrier Dynamics” by Howard E. Jackson and Leigh M. Smith which the publisher Elsevier identified as the most read and downloaded chapter of the volume.  His international standing was recognized by the 2017 IUMRS Somiya Award (IUMRS is the International Union of Materials Research Societies).  Note the winning team included exceptional colleagues from Australia, the UK, and Italy.

His departmental and administrative excellence is reflected in his long service as department head, in keeping the department on a positive trajectory, and in becoming a trusted confidant of the Dean.  When he steps down on August 15th this year, he will have completed a remarkable full decade of service as department head.

Prof. P. Chris Hammel

The Ohio State University

It's hard to think of materials physics at Ohio State University and not immediately think of Chris Hammel. Chris came to Ohio State in 2002 as a Professor and Ohio Eminent Scholar, and for the next twenty-three years he made the university — and the state — a better place to do materials physics. He founded ENCOMM in 2005 and directed the Center for Emergent Materials, OSU's NSF-funded MRSEC, for twelve years, work that brought sustained federal support to Ohio, opened shared facilities to researchers across the region, and earned him the College of Engineering's Building Bridges Award. He had already arrived as a Fellow of Los Alamos National Laboratory, where his NMR studies of the cuprates helped shape the field. Chris is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. But the honors are not the only legacy Chris has! Chris has built lasting and cherished partnerships with his colleagues in magnetism and emergent materials. Having Chris as a mentor was a rare chance to learn from a truly talented mind.  The quality of what these collaborations uncovered speaks to his character as a scientist and colleague. Chris has built a legacy of excellence, not only in his nearly 200 publications and more than 11,000 citations, but also in the students and postdocs he has mentored. Generations of students have come through here and now hold positions at some of the most exciting laboratories in academia, industry, and national labs. Chris' students have gone on to win some of the most prestigious early-career awards young scientists can achieve — speaking to this mentorship and training.

Students in all stages of their education were invited to submit posters detailing their research. Posters were judged on scientific merit, research design, and the student's understanding of their work in the context of their field.

Certificates of excellence and cash prizes were awarded to the best posters in the following categories:

• Undergraduate ($200): Emma Tams (University of Dayton / Air Force Research Laboratory)

• Masters/Pre-candidacy PhD ($250): Pranti Saha (The Ohio State University)

• PhD Candidate ($300): Allison Jessup (The Ohio State University)

We encourage all our students to also participate in AVS National and submit their abstracts to the national conference, AVS72, being held November 8 - 13, 2026 in Pittsburgh, PA. Abstracts for AVS72 are due May 18, 2026.