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Demetriades-Tsafka-Kokkalis Student Prize
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The Demetriades - Tsafka - Kokkalis Prizes
The Demetriades - Tsafka - Kokkalis Prizes were endowed by a generous grant from Sterge Demetriades and his wife Anna Kokkalis Demetriades.

Read more about the past winners current endeavors.


2023 Prize Winners

The Demetriades - Tsafka - Kokkalis Prizes are awarded annually to PhD candidates selected for the best thesis, publication, or discovery in select fields. Saransh Sharma, advised by Professor Azita Emami, has received the prize in Biotechnology or Related Fields for his research in developing ultra-low power and highly miniaturized medical electronics for in-vivo localization and tracking. Nathaniel Wei, advised by Professor John Dabiri, has received the prize in Environmentally Benign Renewable Energy Sources or Related Fields for his research that explores the ways in which unsteady flows in the atmosphere can be leveraged in wind-energy systems for enhanced performance, robustness, and operational longevity. Rebecca Gallivan, advised by Professor Julia Greer, has received the prize in Nanotechnology or Related Fields. Coupled with the development of novel materials processing, Gallivan's research focuses on uncovering fundamental insight into the relationship between length-scale and microstructural features on nanomechanical phenomena in order to lay the foundation for advanced engineering and complex design of materials in nanotechnologies.

2022 Prize Winners
(Left to right: Saransh Sharma, Rebecca Gallivan, Nathaniel Wei)


2022 Prize Winners

The student winners of the 2022 Demetriades - Tsafka - Kokkalis Prizes were announced at the end of this academic year. Ida Qin, advised by Professor Joel Burdick has received the prize in Biotechnology. Her research is in comprehensive temporal understanding and state estimation during robot-assisted surgery. Alan Gu, advised by Professor Michael R. Hoffmann has received the prize in Entrepreneurship. His research is in capturing CO2 at point emission sources to accelerate reaching a goal of carbon neutrality. Joeson Wong, advised by Professor Harry A. Atwater has received the prize in Nanotechnology. His research is focused on the optoelectronic physics and engineering of atomically thin photovoltaics. Fengyu Zhou, advised by Professor Steven Low has received the prize in Environmentally Benign Renewable Energy Sources. His research involves the global optimality and relaxation exactness of the Optimal Power Flow problem in single-phase and multi-phase networks. Stacy Larochelle, advised by Professor Jean-Philippe Avouac and Professor Nadia Lapusta has received the prize in Seismo-Engineering, Prediction, and Protection. Her research uses geodesy, data analysis and modeling to further the understanding of mechanical interactions between water and the solid Earth, from fluid-induced earthquakes to groundwater extraction.

2022 Prize Winners
(Top row left to right: Ida Qin, Alan Gu, Joeson Wong
Bottom row left to right: Fengyu Zhou, Stacy Larochelle)

 


2021 Prize Winners

The student winners of the 2021 Demetriades - Tsafka - Kokkalis Prizes were announced at the end of this academic year. David Brown, advised by Professor Viviana Gradinaru and Professor Matt Thomson has received the prize in Entrepreneurship. His research is in molecular and computational strategies for both understanding variability in the human immune system, and characterizing the on- and off-target profile of gene therapy delivery at the resolution of individual cells. Hsiao-Yi Chen, advised by Professor Marco Bernardi has received the prize in Nanotechnology. His research is in the development of ab initio methods to investigate exciton radiative emission and ultrafast dynamics. Tatyana Dobreva, advised by Professor Matt Thomson and Professor Viviana Gradinaru has received the prize in Entrepreneurship. Her research is in single-cell sequencing to interrogate the human immune system, characterize immune response to recombinant Adeno-Associated Viruses (AAVs), and engineer immune cells. Zachary Lee, advised by Professor Steven Low has received the prize in Environmentally Benign Renewable Energy Sources. His research involves developing a suite of tools and algorithms to enable smart electric vehicle charging at scale. Valere Lambert, advised by Professor Nadia Lapusta has received the prize in Seismo-Engineering, Prediction, and Protection. His research is in developing and using physics-based numerical models that combine laboratory insight and theoretical developments to simulate sequences of earthquake ruptures and slow slip that match field observations, thus illuminating physical properties of faults and building towards predictive modeling.

2021 Prize Winners
(Top row left to right: David Brown, Hsiao-Yi Chen, Tatyana Dobreva
Bottom row left to right: Zachary Lee, Valere Lambert)

 


2020 Prize Winners

The student winners of the 2020 Demetriades - Tsafka - Kokkalis Prizes were announced at the end of this academic year. Manuel Bedrossian, advised by Professor Moretza Gharib has received the prize in Biotechnology. His research is in the development of novel optical imaging devices to investigate and characterize microbial populations in extreme environments around the world. Vinayak Narasimhan, advised by Professor Moretza Gharib and Hyuck Choo has received the prize in Biotechnology. His research is in the utilization of nanostructures inspired from nature in practical biomedical applications. Tyler Ross, advised by Professor Matt Thomson and Professor Paul Rothemund has received the prize in Nanotechnology. His research is in guiding biomolecular filaments and motors to form structures and flow fields with patterned light. Adam Neumann, advised by Professor Michael Roukes has received the prize in Nanotechnology. His research involves incorporating nanoscale sensors into a mass spectrometer and using them to weigh individual molecules and perform rudimentary imaging of them. Joaquin Garcia Suarez, advised by Professor Dominiki Asimaki has received the prize in Seismo-Engineering, Prediction, and Protection. His research is in fundamental research in Continuum Mechanics to better understand the behavior of civil structures during earthquakes.

2020 Prize Winners
(Top row left to right: Manuel Bedrossian, Vinayak Narasimhan, Adam Neumann
Bottom row left to right: Tyler Ross, Joaquin Garcia Suarez)

 


2019 Prize Winners

The student winners of the 2019 Demetriades - Tsafka - Kokkalis Prizes were announced at the end of this academic year. Anupama Lakshmanan, advised by Professor Mikhail Shapiro has received the prize in Biotechnology. Her research is in engineering of acoustic protein nanostructures for non-invasive molecular imaging using ultrasound. Seyedeh Mahsa Kamali, advised by Professor Andrei Faraon has received the prize in Nanotechnology. She focuses on changing paradigms in optical design through engineering materials at the nanoscale. Linqi (Daniel) Guo, advised by Professor Steven Low has received the prize in Environmentally Benign Renewable Energy Source. His research quantifies the impact of transmission network topology in electrical power system robustness against disturbances and failures. Chris Rollins, advised by Professor Jean-Phillippe Avouac has received the prize in Seismo-Engineering, Prediction, and Protection. Chris studies the way that the Earth deforms gradually over periods of years and decades and uses this to shed light on how earthquakes work, where and how often they might occur in the future, and the hazard they may pose. Nicholas Flytzanis, advised by Professor Viviana Gradinaru has receive the prize in Entrepreneurship. His research is in engineering viruses to serve as next-generation gene therapy delivery vehicles for the treatment of human disease.

2019 Prize Winners
(Top row left to right: Anupama Lakshmanan, Chris Rollins, Linqi (Daniel) Guo
Bottom row left to right: Nicholas Flytzanis, Seyedeh Mahsa Kamali)


2018 Prize Winners

The student winners of the 2018 Demetriades - Tsafka - Kokkalis Prizes were announced at the end of this academic year. Claire Bedbrook, advised by Professors Frances H. Arnold and Viviana Gradinaru received the prize in Biotechnology. Her research is in engineering proteins capable of controlling and reading out neural activity to advance neuroscience research. Nicholas Dou, advised by Professor Austin Minnich received the prize in Nanotechnology. Nicholas focuses on developing and characterizing novel nano-architected materials that are exceptionally lightweight, mechanically resilient, and thermally insulating. Xiaoqi Ren, advised by Professor Adam Wierman received the prize in Environmentally Benign Renewable Energy Sources. Xiaoqi’s research is focused on optimization of today's large-scale data centers, including online scheduling, energy usage and sustainability, and new market mechanisms for electricity markets and data clouds. Daniel C. Bowden, advised by Professors Joann M. Stock and Victor Tsai has received the prize in Seismo-Engineering, Prediction, and Protection. Daniel has worked on a range of projects relating to the propagation of seismic waves in the Earth's crust. Colin Cook, advised by Professor Yu-Chong Tai has receive the prize in Entrepreneurship. Colin is working on a phototherapeutic contact lens to treat diabetic retinopathy, a leading cause of blindness.

2018 Prize Winners
(Top row left to right: Claire Bedbrook, Colin Cook, Daniel Bowden.
Bottom row left to right: Nicholas Dou, Xiaoqi Ren)



2017 Prize Winners

The student winners of the 2017 Demetriades - Tsafka - Kokkalis Prizes have been announced. Manuel Alejandro Monge Osorio received the prize in Biotechnology for his work with Professor Azita Emami which involves developing novel techniques for the miniaturization of implantable medical electronics in two important pillars: localization of medical devices and electrical stimulation. Pinaky Bhattacharyya was the recipient of the prize in Seismo-Engineering, Prediction, and Protection for his work with Professor Jim Beck investigating an information-theoretic approach to the problem of the optimal sensor placement for Bayesian system identification of structures using response time-history data. Bryan M. Hunter, working with Professor Harry Gray, received the prize in Environmentally Benign Renewable Energy Sources for his work on the development and characterization of a nickel-iron layered double hydroxide water oxidation catalyst with the goal of developing a solar-driven device for the synthesis of fuels, with hydrogen production as a target. The winner of the prize in Nanotechnology was Anupama Thubagere Jagadeesh whose research interests are focused on understanding the engineering principles behind designing and synthesizing programmable molecular machines.. Anupama’s graduate advisor was Professor Lulu Qian. The prize in Entrepreneurship was given to Ken Y. Chan who was advised by Professor Viviana Gradinaru. His research interests lie in developing tissue clearing technologies to render whole organs transparent for optical investigation.

2017 Prize Winners
(Top row left to right: Manuel Alejandro Monge Osorio, Ken Chan, Bryan Hunter.
Bottom row left to right: Anupama Thubagere Jagadeesh, Pinaky Bhattacharyya)


2016 Prize Winners

Demetriades family and winnersThe student winners of the 2016 Demetriades - Tsafka - Kokkalis Prizes were announced at a special dinner with the Demetriades - Tsafka – Kokkalis family. Rachel P. Galimidi received the prize in Biotechnology for her work with Professor Pamela Bjorkman aimed to further understand the mechanism of HIV evasion of the humoral immune response. Junle Jiang was the recipient of the prize in Seismo-Engineering, Prediction, and Protection for his work with Nadia Lapusta which used probabilistic inversion tools to understand the deep-ocean trench generated tsunamis that occurred during the subduction-zone earthquakes in Japan and Chile. Yinglu Tang working with Dr. Jeff Snyder received the prize in Environmentally Benign Renewable Energy Sources for her work on thermoelectric skutterudites for mid-temperature applications such as automotive waste heat recovery. The second winner in this category was Changhong Zhao who worked with Professor Steven Low to study the control and optimization of modern electric power systems. The winner of the prize in Nanotechnology was Gustavo Rios whose research involves development of a modular, scalable, nanofabricated neural probe system for dense 3-D electrophysiology to study animal brains. Rio’s graduate advisor was Professor Thanos Siapas. The prize in Entrepreneurship was given to Anton A. Toutov who was advised by Professor Robert Grubbs. His research interests lie in using fundamental chemistry to development radically new, sustainable ways to make everyday chemical products and generate clean energy.


2015 Prize Winners

Demetriades family and winnersThe student winners of the 2015 Demetriades - Tsafka - Kokkalis Prizes were announced at a special luncheon with the Demetriades - Tsafka - Kokkalis family. Alborz Mahdavi received the prize in Biotechnology for his work with David Tirrell developed a set of important new tools for analyzing protein synthesis in complex biological systems. Srivatsan Hulikal was the recipient of the prize in Seismo-Engineering, Prediction, and Protection for his work with Nadia Lapusta on linking macroscopic frictional properties of interfaces to their micromechanics. Lingwen Gan working with Steven Low received the prize in Environmentally Benign Renewable Energy Sources for his work on sustainable power systems and specifically the control and optimization of distributed energy resources in future smart grids. The winner of the prize in Nanotechnology was Niranjan Srinivas for designing and building a system of DNA machines that, in bulk, implement an oscillator. Niranjan's advisor was Eric Winfree. (View photos of the 2015 luncheon)


2014 Prize Winners

The student winners of the 2014 Demetriades - Tsafka - Kokkalis Prizes were announced at a special luncheon with the Demetriades - Tsafka – Kokkalis family. Imran Malik received the prize in Biotechnology for his work with Axel Scherer on designing and demonstrating a sample-to-answer disease detection system based on a low-cost quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). Faisal Amlani was the recipient of the prize in Seismo-Engineering, Prediction, and Protection for his work with Oscar Bruno on the development of a new high-order methodology for seismic and elastic wave propagation with applications to earthquakes. This year there were two winners for the Demetriades-Tsafka-Kokkalis Prizes is in Nanotechnology. One winner was Bradley Lyon for his worked with Morteza Gharib on formulating the concept and fabricating the methods for creating carbon nanotube microneedles that delivered drugs painlessly to animals. The other winner of the Nanotechnology prize was Muhammad Mujeeb-U-Rahman who has worked with Axel Scherer on developing an inexpensive implantable and wireless continuous glucose monitor chip which is only 1mmx1mm size. (View photos of the 2014 luncheon)


2013 Prize Winners

2013 WinnersThe student winners of the 2013 Demetriades - Tsafka - Kokkalis Prizes were announced at a special luncheon with the Demetriades - Tsafka – Kokkalis family. Pedro Coelho received the prize in Biotechnology for his work with Frances Arnold on biocatalyst engineering that has a myriad of applications in green chemistry. Michael Olson was the recipient of the prize in Seismo-Engineering, Prediction, and Protection for his work with Mani Chandy on developing the cloud based service that enables the community seismic network to function. James McKone working with Harry Gray received the prize in Environmentally Benign Renewable Energy Sources for his work on developing new catalysts for solar-driven water splitting to produce hydrogen fuel. The winner of the prize in Nanotechnology was Janna Nawroth for her wide range of experiments including the creation of a freely swimming artificial jellyfish. Janna's advisor was John Dabiri. This year there were two winners for the Demetriades-Tsafka-Kokkalis Prizes is in Entrepreneurship. One winner was Aditya Rajagopal for his worked on new pathogen detection approaches that are currently being commercialized. Aditya was advised by Axel Scherer The other winner of the Entrepreneurship prize was Guoan Zheng who has worked with Changhei Yang on a number of entrepreneur efforts including two Caltech startups that are currently commercializing two of his inventions - one is a self-imaging petri-dish platform that can stream microscopy images out of an incubator and the other is a highly novel digital pathology slide scanner. (View photos of the 2013 luncheon)


2012 Prize Winners

2012 WinnersThe student winners of the 2012 Demetriades - Tsafka - Kokkalis Prizes were announced at a special luncheon with the Demetriades - Tsafka - Kokkalis family. Philip Romero received the prize in Biotechnology for his work on developing statistical models of proteins with Frances Arnold. Michael Mello was the recipient of the prize in Seismo-Engineering, Prediction, and Protection for his work with Ares Rosakis on developing a novel methodology for identifying the unique ground motion signatures of supershear earthquakes. Leslie O'Leary received the prize in Environmentally Benign Renewable Energy Sources for her pathbreaking work on the properties of semiconductor interfaces with Nate Lewis and Bob Grubbs. This year there were two winners for the prize in Nanotechnology. One winner was Andrew Jennings for his experimental and modeling work in nanomechanics with Julia Greer. The other winner of the Nanotechnology prize was Jordan Raney who has worked with Chiara Daraio to develop new chemical synthesis methods to control the properties of carbon nanotubes. (View photos of the 2012 luncheon)


2011 Prize Winners

2011 Winners

The student winners of the 2011 Demetriades - Tsafka - Kokkalis Prizes were announced at a special luncheon with the Demetriades - Tsafka – Kokkalis family. Fiona Chandra received the prize in Biotechnology for her work on glycolytic oscillations with John Doyle. Shelby Hutchens received the prize in Nanotechnology for her work on carbon nanotube foams with Julia Greer. Vivian Ferry recieved the prize in Entrepreneurship for her work on plasmonic photovoltaics with Harry Atwater. William Chueh received the prize in Environmentally Benign Renewable Energy Sources for his work on solar-driven thermochemical fuel production with Sossina Haile. Matthew Faulkner was the recipient of the newest Demetriades - Tsafka – Kokkalis prize in the area of Seismo-Engineering, Prediction, and Protection for his work with Andreas Krause on using accelerometers in cellphones for detecting shaking from earthquakes. (View photos of the 2011 luncheon)


2010 Prize Winners

The student winners of the 2010 Demetriades - Tsafka - Kokkalis Prizes were announced at a special luncheon with the Demetriades - Tsafka - Kokkalis family. Xiquan Cui received the prize in Biotechnology for his work on biophotonics with Professor Changhuei Yang; Matt Eichenfield received the prize in Nanotechnology for his work in nanomechanics with Professor Oskar Painter; Morgan Putnam received the prize in Entrepreneurship for work on silicon solar cells with Professor Harry Atwater; and Andrew May received the prize in Environmentally Benign Renewable Energy Sources for his work on thermoelectric materials with Professor Sossina Haile and Dr. Jeff Snyder. (View photos of the 2010 luncheon)


2009 Prize Winners

Erik Rodriguez received the prize in Biotechnology; Ke Xu received the prize in Nanotechnology for his work with Professor Michael Roukes; Virgil Griffith received the prize in Entrepreneurship for his work with Professor Ken Pickar; Joshua Spurgeon received the prize in Renewable Energy for his work with Harry Atwater. (View photos of the 2009 luncheon)

 

 


2008 Prize Winners

Melissa Archer received the prize in Environmentally Benign Renewable Energy Sources for her work with Professor Harry Atwater; John Delacruz and Andrew Downard received the prize in Entrepreneurship for their work with Professor Ken Pickar; Rassul Karabalin received the prize in Nanotechnology for his work with Professor Michael Roukes; Sabastian Maerkl received the prize in Biotechnology. (View photos of the 2008 luncheon)

 


2007 Prize Winners

Ghyrn Loveness received the prize in Entrepreneurship for their work with Professor Ken Pickar; Jang Wook Choi received the prize in Nanotechnology for his work with Professor James R Heath; Robert Walters received the prize in Nanotechnology for his work with Professor Harry Atwater; Jesse Bloom received the prize in Biotechnology for his work with Professor Frances H. Arnold.


2006 Prize Winners

Allan Drummond received the prize in Bioengineering for his work with Professor Frances Arnold; John Howard received the prize in Entrepreneurship for his work with Professor Ken Pickar; Michael Hochberg received the prize in Nanotechnology for his work with Professor Axel Scherer.


2005 Prize Winner

Jeffrey Endelman received the prize in Bioengineering for his work with Professor Frances Arnold.


Caltech    last update: 06/02/2023