Gaurav Vats awarded the 2020 Dean’s Award for Outstanding PhD Thesis

Gaurav has been awarded 2020 Dean’s Award for Outstanding PhD Thesis. in recognition of your PhD thesis Investigation of electrical, optical and mechanical control of ferroelectric domains using scanning probe microscopy. Congratulation Gaurav and his supervisors named Prof. Jan Seidal and Prof. Nagarajan Valanoor.

The Dean’s Award recognises high quality PhD theses produced at UNSW. The award goes to PhD graduates who have submitted a thesis that requires only minimal corrections, received outstanding and/or excellent levels of achievement for all examination criteria, and, in the opinion of both examiners, is in the top 10% of PhD theses examined.

"I started my PhD with a keen interest in this field. I expected outcomes of my research would be exciting to the research community in this regime and was sure of leading to real-life applications. Such a research that lead to this award couldn’t have been possible without comments/feedbacks that my supervisors, lab mates and collaborators provided. The joy of this award would have been meaningless without the mental and social support provided by the school staff, fellow students, my friends and family. I am very sure this achievement will motivate upcoming students in the School of Materials Science and Engineering." Gaurav Vats said.

"Gaurav’s research during his PhD includes advanced scanning probe microscopy for nanoscale electronic materials characterisation, solid state thermodynamics and energy conversion, as well as light interaction with ferroelectric materials. He has shown that light can alter the properties of certain ferroelectrics on various length scales and that it can be used to move intrinsic domain structures in such materials, which has implications for nanoelectronics and energy conversion." Prof. Jan Seidel stated. 

An electronic thesis can be accessed below;

https://www.unsworks.unsw.edu.au/permalink/f/5gm2j3/unsworks_67409(link is external)