About the Ziegler Awards

The Waldemar T. Ziegler Awards were established by the family and friends of the late Waldemar T. Ziegler to honor his lifelong commitment to academic excellence and research.

Ziegler was on the faculty of the School of Chemical Engineering from 1946 until his retirement in 1978, when he was named Regents’ Professor emeritus. He died in 1996, leaving behind a legacy of outstanding research in the fields of cryogenics and thermodynamics. Ziegler was instrumental in establishing both the School’s and Georgia Tech’s reputations for outstanding research.

Two individual Ziegler Awards are presented annually to graduate students. The Ziegler Award for Best Paper began in 1998, and the Ziegler Award for Best Proposal began in 2005.

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Victor Brandao and Rajas Poorna

2023 Ziegler Award winners: Victor Brandão (Best PhD Proposal, left) and Rajas Poorna (Best Paper).

Recent Winners:

2023

Ziegler Award for Best Paper
Rajas Poorna (Advisors: Saad Bhamla and Marcus Cicerone)
“Toward Gene-Correlated Spatially Resolved Metabolomics with Fingerprint Coherent Raman Imaging”

2023

Ziegler Award for Best Proposal
Victor Brandão (Advisor: Carsten Sievers)
“Microenvironment Engineering for the CO₂ Reduction Reaction Over Copper Electrocatalysts”

2022

Ziegler Award for Best Paper
Rahul Venkatesh (Advisor: Martha Grover)
"Data Science Guided Experiments Identify Conjugated Polymer Solution Concentration as a Key Parameter in Device Performance"

2022

Ziegler Award for Best Proposal
Yuchen (George) Chang (Advisor: Carsten Sievers)
"The Kinetics of Ball Mill Mechanochemistry and its Application to the Depolymerization of Plastic Waste" 

2021

Ziegler Award for Best Paper
Steven Frey (Advisor: Ravi Kane)
“Multivalent S2-Based Vaccines Protect Hamsters Against SARS-CoV-2 and Elicit Broadly Cross-Reactive Antibodies to Endemic Coronaviruses.”

Ziegler Award for Best PhD Proposal
Jaeyoung Park (Advisor: Julie Champion)
“Developing New Vaccine Platforms to Preserve Structure of Antigens as a Strategy to Enhance Effectiveness of Universal Flu Vaccines.”

2020

Ziegler Award for Best Paper
Yamin Zhang (Advisor: Nian Liu)
"Deeply Rechargeable and Hydrogen-Evolution-Suppressing Zinc Anode in Alkaline Aqueous Electrolyte"

Ziegler Award for Best PhD Proposal
Maria Rain Jennings (Advisor: Johnny Blazeck)
"Developing a human enzyme to alleviate adenosine-mediated immunosuppression in cancer"

2019

Ziegler Award for Best Paper
Yutong Wu (Advisor: Nian Liu)
“In Operando Visualization of the Electrochemical Formation of Liquid Polybromide Microdroplets"

Ziegler Award for Best PhD Proposal
Ezgi Dogan-Guner (Advisor: Carson Meredith)
“Incorporating Cellulose Nanocrystals into Zero-VOC Waterborne Acrylic Coatings”

2018

Ziegler Awards for Best Paper
Chinmay Satam (Advisor: Carson Meredith)
“Spray-Coated Multilayer Cellulose Nanocrystal—Chitin Nanofi ber Films for Barrier Applications”

Fengyi Zhang (Advisors: Ryan Lively and Victor Breedveld)
“Solution-based 3D printing of polymers of intrinsic microporosity”

Ziegler Award for Best PhD Proposal
Shivesh Chaudhary (Advisor: Hang Lu)
“Automated tools for fast processing of C. elegans wholebrainvideos and investigating effects of monoamines on global brain dynamics”

2017

Ziegler Award for Best Paper
Krishna C. Jayachandrababu (Advisors: Sankar Nair and David Sholl)
“Mixed-Linker ZIF Synthesis and Remediation of Acid-Gas Degradation Using Linker-Exchange Techniques”

Ziegler Award for Best PhD Proposal
Alexandra N. Tsoras (Advisor: Julie A. Champion)
“Peptide Nanoclusters for Increased Immunogenicity in Vaccines”

2016

Ziegler Award for Best Paper
Sylvia Sullivan (Advisor: Athanasios Nenes)
“Role of updraft velocity in temporal variability of global cloud hydrometeor number"

Ziegler Award for Best PhD Proposal
Rebecca Han (Advisor: David Sholl)
“Computational Characterization of Disorder and Heterogeneity in Bulk MOF Structures”

2015

Ziegler Award for Best Paper
Yi Zhang (Advisors: Sven Behrens and Carson Meredith)
"Colloidal Particles: a Novel Wetting Modifier in Colloidal Multiphase Systems"

Ziegler Award for Best PhD Proposal
Harrison Rose (Advisor: Sven Behrens)
"Developing An Enzymatic Route to 2,5-Furandicarboxylic Acid"

2014

Ziegler Award for Best Paper
Guo Shiou Foo (Advisor: Carsten Sievers)
“Role of Lewis and Brønsted Acid Sites in the Dehydration of Glycerol Over Niobia”

Ziegler Awards for Best PhD Proposal
Thomas Levario (Advisor: Hang Lu)
“Development of Microfluidicand Automation Tools for High-Throughput Microscopy and Analysis of Embryogenesis”

Lu Xu (Advisor: Sally Ng)
“Effects of Anthropogenic Emissions on Aerosol Formation from Biogenic Volatile Organic Compounds in the Southeastern United States”

2013

Ziegler Awards for Best Paper
Himanshu Jasuja (Advisor: Krista Walton)
"Kinetic Water Stability of an Isostructural Family of Zinc-based Pillared Metal-Organic Frameworks"

Nicholas Burtch (Advisor: Krista Walton)
"Molecular-level Insight into Low Pressure CO2"

Ziegler Award for Best PhD Proposal
Steven Burgess (Advisor: William Koros)
"Polyester Barrier Material Development for Advanced Packaging Applications"

Historical Winners:

Ziegler Awards for Best Paper

Ildar Musin, 2012

Avishek Aiyar, 2011

Jonathan Rubin, 2010

Kwanghun Chung and Jae Kyu Cho, 2009

Jeong Woo Lee, 2008

Jason Hicks, 2007

Sanjoy Mukherjee, 2006

Jeesy Medina, 2005

Michael McKittrick, 2004

Krishna Maria Tej, 2003

Brian Timberlake, 2002

True Ngo, 2001

Yaohui Lu, 2000

Thomas Kropewnicki, 1999

Cary Wauters, 1998

Ziegler Awards for Best PhD Proposal

Michael Casicato, 2012

Dun-Yen Kang, 2011

Adriana San Miguel, 2010

Alison Hirsch, 2009

Balamurali Balu, 2008

Anupama Kasturirangan, 2007

James Falabella, 2006

Anshul Dubey, 2005