Congratulations to Sam and Jiuk for passing their qualification exam and acquiring a Master’s Degree in their respective fields! We are so proud!
Category: Team Updates
Paula and Anna presented their wonderful projects at UC San Diego’s Summer Undergraduate Research Conference. A job well done to both of them!


The Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation announced today the selection of its 2022 class of Beckman Young Investigator Awardees from U.S. colleges and universities. The awardees exemplify the Foundation’s mission of supporting the most promising young faculty members in the early stages of their academic careers in the chemical and life sciences, particularly to foster the invention of methods, instruments, and materials that will open new avenues of research in science. They were selected from a pool of over 225 applicants after a three-part review led by a panel of scientific experts. Congratulations Poulikakos Labs!

Anna Nguyen was selected to be a part of the Genentech Scholars program! She will be participating in a 10-week, full-time summer research experience for undergraduates, supported by the Genentech Foundation. We can’t wait to see what she does during the summer and in the future!
Zaid Completed his Master’s!
Zaid completed his master’s in electrical engineering! He can now be called Magister Zaid. A huge congratulations to Zaid who will now be working on Ph.D!
Shahrose Completed his Bachelor’s!
Huge congratulations to Shahrose for completing his Bachelor’s in Aerospace Engineering! We are so excited to have him continue his studies under the M.S program with a specialization in Applied Plasma Physics!
Zaid completed the first requirement of the Electrical and Computer Engineering PhD program: passing the preliminary exam! Thank you to Dr. Shaya Fainman, Dr. Jesse Jokerst, Dr. Saharnaz Baghdadchi, and Dr. Zhaowei Liu for being on his committee!

Prof. Poulikakos presented the lab’s research to local senior citizens at the Fleet Science Center’s Sharp Minds Lecture Series. Thank you to the UCSD MRSEC for this opportunity and to all participants for their wonderful and thoughtful questions!
Sam, Paula and Prof. Poulikakos presented the fascinating science of structural color in nature to local women in 7th and 8th grade as part of the BE WiSE Program from the Fleet Science Center with the UCSD MRSEC!
In April, Paula presented our current research on colorimetric metasurfaces for tissue diagnostics. She was one of four students selected to be a plenary speaker for the Stanford Research conference out of the 79 student presenters. Well done Paula!