Nadya Mason – Wikipedia

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American physicist and former gymnast

Nadya Mason is the Rosalyn Sussman Yalow Professor of Physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. As a condensed matter experimentalist, she works on the quantum limits of low-dimensional systems. Mason is the Director of the Illinois Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (I-MRSEC)[1] and, since September 2022, the Director of the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology.[2] She is the first woman and woman of color to work as the director at the institute.[3][4] In 2021, she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.[5][6]

Personal life[edit]

Mason was born in New York City, and lived in Brooklyn for the first six years of her life. She grew up in Washington, D.C. before moving to Houston.[7] In 1986 she trained as a gymnast with Bela Karolyi and competed as a member of the U.S. National Team.[8] She currently lives in Urbana, IL, where she is a faculty member at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.[9] She has two daughters.[10]

Education[edit]

Mason always enjoyed math and science, and completed several science-focused internships during her education,[11] including a fellowship in condensed matter at Bell Laboratories. She completed a bachelor’s degree at Harvard University in 1995.[12] In 2001 she earned a PhD under Aharon Kapitulnik at Stanford University.[13]

Research[edit]

Mason returned to Harvard as a MRSEC Postdoctoral Fellow in 2001, where she was elected junior fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows.[12] In 2005, Mason joined the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.[14] Her research focuses on carbon nanotubes, graphene, nanostructured semiconductors and topological insulators.[15][14] In these systems she concentrates on electron interactions, and how to apply her understanding to quantum computing.[8][16] She has discussed the limit on the size of electronics and impact of novel nanomaterials for the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign YouTube channel.[17]

In 2006 she demonstrated the non-equilibrium Kondo effect and in 2011 observed individual superconducting bound states in graphene-based systems.[18][19] In 2014 Mason was appointed a John Bardeen Faculty Scholar in Physics at University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.[18] In 2016 she was appointed to full Professor.[20]

Service and outreach[edit]

Nadya Mason is a General Councillor for the American Physical Society.[14] She is Chair of the APS Committee on Minorities and was featured by the National Society of Black Physicists for Black History Month in 2017.[21]

In November 2019, Mason gave a TED talk called, “How to spark your creativity, scientifically.”[22]

Honors and awards[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ “People | Illinois Materials Research Science and Engineering Center”. mrsec.illinois.edu. Retrieved 2020-10-27.
  2. ^ “Nadya Mason Named Director of the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology | Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation (OVCRI)”. research.illinois.edu. Retrieved 2022-11-04.
  3. ^ Clayton, Daja. “Dr. Nadya Mason becomes Beckman Institute’ first woman of color Director”. WAND-TV. Retrieved 2022-11-04.
  4. ^ McClure, Julie (31 August 2022). “Checking in with Nadya Mason, the new Director of Beckman Institute : Culture : Smile Politely”. www.smilepolitely.com. Retrieved 2022-11-04.
  5. ^ “2021 NAS Election”.
  6. ^ a b “News from the National Academy of Sciences”. 2021-04-26. Retrieved 2021-07-04. Newly elected members and their affiliations at the time of election are: … Mason, Nadya; director, Illinois Materials Research Science and Engineering Center, and Rosalyn Sussman Yalow Professor in Physics, department of physics, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, entry in member directory:“Member Directory”. National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 2021-07-04.
  7. ^ draziza1 (2009-01-05), Profile of Dr. Nadya Mason, retrieved 2018-02-07
  8. ^ a b Hyman, Paul. “Nadya Mason: From Pirouettes to Carbon Nanotubes | News | Communications of the ACM”. cacm.acm.org. Retrieved 2018-02-07.
  9. ^ Department of Physics. “Nadya Mason | ILLINOIS PHYSICS”. physics.illinois.edu. Retrieved 2020-10-20.
  10. ^ “Chambana Mom to Know: Nadya Mason”. ChambanaMoms.com. 2011-09-07. Retrieved 2018-02-07.
  11. ^ “Nadya Mason | Introductions Necessary”. introductionsnecessary.com. Retrieved 2018-02-07.
  12. ^ a b “Dr. Nadya Mason – Materials Research Science and Engineering Center at Harvard University”. www.mrsec.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2018-02-07.
  13. ^ Mason, Nadya (August 2001). Superconductor-metal-insulator transitions in two dimensions (PhD dissertation). Stanford University. Bibcode:2001PhDT…….241M. ISBN 978-0-493-40427-1. ProQuest 304727938.
  14. ^ a b c “Nadya Mason”. www.aps.org. Retrieved 2018-02-07.
  15. ^ Mason, Nadya (2016-05-20). “Superconductivity on the edge”. Science. 352 (6288): 891–892. Bibcode:2016Sci…352..891M. doi:10.1126/science.aaf6604. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 27199401. S2CID 206649295.
  16. ^ “Nadya Mason”. www.aps.org. Retrieved 2018-02-07.
  17. ^ Physics Illinois (2017-11-15), Saturday Physics for Everyone 2017: Nadya Mason, retrieved 2018-02-07
  18. ^ a b Physics, Department of. “Mason named John Bardeen Scholar”. Retrieved 2018-02-07.
  19. ^ Paaske, J.; Rosch, A.; Wölfle, P.; Mason, N.; Marcus, C. M.; Nygård, J. (2006). “Non-equilibrium singlet–triplet Kondo effect in carbon nanotubes”. Nature Physics. 2 (7): 460–464. arXiv:cond-mat/0602581. Bibcode:2006NatPh…2..460P. doi:10.1038/nphys340. ISSN 1745-2481. S2CID 10840835.
  20. ^ “#WCWinSTEM: Nadya Mason, Ph.D.” #VanguardSTEM. Retrieved 2018-02-07.
  21. ^ Roberson, Stephen. “Nadya Mason”. nsbp.org. Retrieved 2018-02-07.
  22. ^ Mason, Nadya (15 April 2020), How to spark your curiosity, scientifically, retrieved 2020-10-20
  23. ^ “New Members Elected in 2021”. American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 2021-04-22.
  24. ^ “Bouchet Award Recipient”. www.aps.org. Retrieved 2019-11-12.
  25. ^ “Prize Recipient”. www.aps.org. Retrieved 2020-10-20.
  26. ^ Physics, Department of. “Nadya Mason and Mark Neubauer win Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research”. Retrieved 2018-02-07.
  27. ^ “Prize Recipient”. www.aps.org. Retrieved 2018-02-07.
  28. ^ AnitaB_org (2010-03-02), Nadya Mason, 2009 Denice Denton Emerging Leader Award Winner, retrieved 2018-02-07
  29. ^ a b “Nadya Mason – AnitaB.org”. AnitaB.org. 2009-10-01. Retrieved 2018-02-07.
  30. ^ “NSF Award Search: Award#0644674 – CAREER: Tuning Transport in Nanostructures”. www.nsf.gov. Retrieved 2018-02-07.