So proud to announce that our former PhD student and new Post-Doc Dr Cindy He took home the 2025 Aaronson award at the International Conference on Solid-Solid Phase Transformations in Inorganic Materials (PTM2025) in Delft, The Netherlands last week. There is only one such award every five years.

Cindy’s application was selected from around ten submissions by the Scientific Committee of PTM2025 led by Profs. Annika Borgenstam, KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Leo Kestens, Ghent University. Cindy was selected based on her supervisor’s enthusiastic letter, her fundamental contributions to the knowledge of phase transformations, significant first author publications during the term of her PhD, her strong international network at early career stage, engagement in faculty and outreach activities, and her future leadership potential.

Following the tradition of the PTM-conferences in Whistler (2015) and China (2020/2022), the Aaronson Award is granted to an outstanding graduate student or young researcher in recognition of his/her exceptional contribution to the understanding of phase transformations. The award, a tribute to the late Professor Hubert Aaronson (1924 – 2005) was open to all current graduate students and to young researchers who obtained their M.Sc. or Ph.D. degree less than three years prior to PTM2025, i.e. on or after 7 July 2022. The awardee was expected to register for and to present her/his work at the PTM2025 conference.