IUP Undergraduate Wins Chung Soo Yoo Award

Beth Leverett, an IUP undergrad in the Chemistry Department, has earned the Chung Soo Yoo Award at the 65th Pittsburgh Diffraction Conference held at the Hauptman-Woodward Institute in Buffalo, NY. The Chung Soo Yoo Award is given to the top graduate student presenter. Dr. Tim Umland, the awards committee chair, commented that her presentation entitled "Twinning in the Adamantine-Like Quaternary Chalcogenide Li₂ZnSnS₄" (pictured above) was "an outstanding detective story".

Her research demonstrated that the currently accepted interpretation of the diffraction data associated with these compounds was incorrect. Ms. Leverett was the first undergraduate student in the history of the society to win the award. She had stiff competition from Ph.D. graduate students studying at the University of Rochester, University of Buffalo, Hauptman-Woodward Institute, The Ohio State University, Cornell University, Stanford University, University of Toledo, McMaster University and the University of Western Ontario, amongst others.

The Pittsburgh Diffraction Society (PDS) was founded in 1941 to bring scientists together to discuss the use of X-rays to investigate the structure of matter at the atomic level. The PDS is oldest diffraction society in the United States and its membership includes leading scientists from around the world including Nobel Laureate Herbert Hauptman (pictured above).