Sixth SFU Student Nets Top National Graduate Award

Document Tools

Ground breaking research in chemistry that will advance the invention of sophisticated electromechanical devices has led a graduate student to become the sixth Simon Fraser University recipient of a prized national award.

Yonghong Bing, a 2005 SFU doctoral graduate, is the recipient of a 2006 Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council Doctoral prize, which includes $10,000 cash and a silver medal. Only four of the national prizes for the top doctoral research in science and engineering are awarded annually.

The native of eastern China, who lives in Coquitlam, is the sixth SFU student since 1992 to win Canada’s premier doctoral prize in science and engineering. Bing’s award makes SFU rank third in the country in terms of success rate. “This year’s award is a special reflection of SFU’s commitments to accessibility and interdisciplinarity, the award going to a female international student, whose PhD thesis in chemistry was awarded the top prize in engineering,” says SFU President Michael Stevenson.

Bing, who is pursuing postdoctoral work under her doctoral supervisor, chemistry professor Zuo-Guang Ye, discovered a new family of piezoelectric crystals that can be more easily manipulated than conventional ones.

Piezoelectric crystals generate a voltage when mechanical pressure is applied to them. Their name is derived from the Greek word piezein, meaning squeeze or press. When used to build transducers—sensors and actuators that convert mechanical energy to electrical energy and vise versa—piezoelectric crystals make medical, scientific and industrial probes highly sensitive.

Bing has discovered that single crystals can be manipulated to generate short blips of high-voltage electricity, which deforms them. Electrocution enhances the deformation, which can then be used to make transducers, and ultimately probes, more effective. “If this piezoelectric enhancement can be operated in a wide temperature range, it will improve everything from the resolution, sensitivity and bandwidth of ultrasound machines to the range of sonar listening devices,” says Bing.

In August, Bing will continue her postdoctoral research at Seattle’s University of Washington. A two-year, $80,000 NSERC postdoctoral fellowship recently awarded to her necessitates that she use it to further research at a university other than where she obtained her doctorate.

—30—

(electronic photo file available on request)