Photo: Prof. Ajoy receiving the award from Prof. Anne Lesage at Chamonix (4 Sep 2022). (Photo courtesty of Ashok Ajoy.)
The College is pleased to announce the scientific committee of the Alpine Conference on Magnetic Resonance in Solids has awarded Assistant Professor of Chemistry Ashok Ajoy the prestigious 2022 Caldarelli Prize in Magnetic Resonance. This award is in recognition of his pioneering work on quantum-enhanced NMR and MRI to generate new tools for analytical chemistry on-chip or on the benchtop. The committee also noted his efforts to develop miniaturized NMR probes, innovative hyperpolarization methodology, and the study of nanoscale spin dynamics. This work provides novel types of measurement modalities, and also enables the investigation of novel nanoscale and quantum phenomena.
Prof. Ajoy stated, “It is humbling to receive this award and gratifying to receive recognition for this new direction of research from the community”.
Prof. Ajoy joined the College of Chemistry in 2020 from a postdoctoral appointment with Professor of Chemistry Alex Pines. During his postdoctoral research, he headed up an international team of scientists from the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and UC Berkeley who suggested a new pathway to exploit defects in nanoscale and microscale diamonds to strongly enhance the sensitivity of MRI and NMR systems using a laser while reducing the need for costly and bulky superconducting magnets.
About the Caldarelli Prize in Magnetic Resonance for Young Investigators
The prize recognizes the contributions of young scientists who have made recent ground-breaking contributions to the field of magnetic resonance in solids. The prize is dedicated to the memory of Stefano Caldarelli, who was one of the founders of the Alpine Conference and is supported by Bruker Biospin.
The Alpine Conference is a high-level international forum for the discussion of recent methodological developments and applications in the field of magnetic resonance in solids. The Conference was founded in 1999 and is organized by a group of prominent researchers in the field.