Christopher Hennighausen, a physics Ph.D. student the lab of Ankit Disa, assistant professor in the School of Applied and Engineering Physics, Duffield Engineering, was one of only 75 students nationwide awarded to participate in the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) Program in 2026.
This program “prepares doctoral candidates for careers of critical importance to the Office of Science’s mission of transforming our understanding of nature and advancing the energy, economic, and national security of the United States. Participants receive world-class training and access to state-of-the-art facilities, expertise, and resources at DOE’s National Laboratories.”
The award will support Hennighausen’s research collaboration with scientists at Brookhaven National Laboratory, where he will conduct advanced experiments as part of his project “Multi-Dimensional Spectroscopy of Defect-Induced Piezoluminescence in Doped Oxides.”
Hennighausen was selected in recognition of his “outstanding academic accomplishments and the merit of the SCGSR research proposal.”
“This award provides Chris a unique opportunity to conduct research at a DOE lab to perform experiments he would not be able to do at Cornell,” said Disa. “It recognizes Chris’s accomplishments and his potential to make important contributions to the field.”