The ICB’s Songi Han wins 2019 BPS Innovation Award

ICB Project Leader and UCSB Chemistry Professor Songi Han has been awarded the Biophysical Society (BPS) Innovation Award for her inventions of solid-state and time-domain-capable dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) instrumentation and of Overhauser dynamic nuclear polarization to characterize surface water in biological and soft materials.

Han’s work allows for deeper investigation into biological hydration and surface water mapping, such as the interaction of water and silica, or glass. Implications of her research include better understanding of binding thermodynamics, imaging across the blood-brain barrier using hyperpolarized water, and improvements to filtration, chromatography and nanofabrication.

According to Biophysical Society, the award “recognizes a BPS member who advances our fundamental understanding of biological systems through the development of novel theory, models, concepts, techniques, or applications.” Han will be presented with the award and $2,000 prize at the 2019 Annual Meeting on March 5, 2019 in Baltimore, Maryland.