October 7, 2019 Kawasaki earns young investigator honor Written By: Staff Departments: Materials Science & Engineering Categories: Awards The North American Molecular Beam Epitaxy (NAMBE) recognized Jason Kawasaki, the Harvey D. Spangler Assistant Professor in materials science and engineering, with a young investigator award at the organization’s annual conference in September 2019. NAMBE is an international forum for reporting scientific and technological developments in molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) research. The award honors individuals who have made significant contributions to the science and technology of MBE or enabled by MBE by the age of 40 and show promise of future leadership in the field. Kawasaki, who has also received a DARPA Young Faculty Award and NSF CAREER Award, was selected for his prominent scientific contributions to the MBE community. Among those is clarifying new thin-film growth mechanisms for transition metal and rare earth-based compounds, which enables researchers to very precisely control material properties that cannot be achieved in the bulk form. Kawasaki has already made critical discoveries in three distinct classes of materials: Heusler compounds, complex oxides, and rare-earth compounds. A member of the department since 2016, Kawasaki is responsible for establishing and leading a program on epitaxial growth and physics of low-dimension quantum materials.