PhD student receives 2022 Rosalind Franklin Young Investigator Award

Qilin Guo, a mechanical engineering PhD student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, was named the 2022 recipient of the Rosalind Franklin Young Investigator Award.

This biannual award is given by the Advanced Photon Source (APS) user organization. It recognizes important scientific or technical accomplishments at (or beneficial to) the APS by a young investigator, typically a senior graduate student or early career researcher. The APS is a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science user facility located at DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory. The award is named for Rosalind Franklin, a chemist who played a critical, but largely unacknowledged role in the discovery of the structure of DNA.

Guo, whose research revealed process dynamics in three major aspects of the laser powder bed fusion additive manufacturing process, was nominated for the award by his PhD advisor Lianyi Chen, Charles Ringrose Assistant Professor in mechanical engineering and a fellow of the Grainger Institute for Engineering at UW-Madison.

In his remarks, Chen lauded Guo as one of the pioneers of “using synchrotron-based in situ X-ray imaging and diffraction to study the physical dynamics of metal additive manufacturing process.”

“I feel truly honored to receive this award,” Guo says. “The APS has been my other academic home during my entire PhD study. My achievements greatly benefit from the excellent researchers and the world-class facilities there. Having my work recognized in this way is really a proud moment for me and my entire team.”

Guo’s findings related to powder spattering, melt pool evolution, melt flow evolution and solidification dynamics have the potential to transform the metal additive manufacturing industry. His work may help manufacturers design better machines and help part manufacturers make higher quality parts. It may also help feedstock material producers design and develop better metal powders and help reduce the level of effort required for qualification of components. Guo conducted his research using APS beamlines 1-ID, 11-ID and 32-ID-B.

Guo previously conducted graduate research at Missouri University of Science and Technology. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree and Master of Science degree from Harbin Institute of Technology in China.

A version of this story was originally published by Argonne National Laboratory.