Dr. ‘Sam’ Sumant Sarkar, who successfully defended his Ph.D. dissertation this past October, has been awarded the Outstanding Doctoral Student in the Department of Applied Physics and Materials Science. Sam’s Ph.D. research focused on the fabrication and analysis of nanohelical structures that exhibit chiral optical properties under the guidance of Prof. John Gibbs. His work was highlighted in The NAU Review earlier this year. Sam is the first student to graduate from NAU’s Applied Physics and Materials Science PhD program and will formally receive his degree later this fall.
