VCU news

By Sathya Achia Abraham

Shiv N. Khanna, Ph.D., commonwealth professor in the Department of Physics in the Virginia Commonwealth University College of Humanities and Sciences, has been named a recipient of a 2013 State Council of Higher Education for Virginia Outstanding Faculty Award.

Khanna, who is a leader in the field of clusters and nanoscience, will be honored with 11 other recipients for excellence in teaching, research, knowledge integration and public service.

“This worthy honor exemplifies Professor Khanna’s dedication and passion for sharing his knowledge and advancing scholarship,” said VCU President Michael Rao, Ph.D. “Dedicated professors like my colleague Shiv Khanna are helping VCU achieve the recognition it deserves among national research universities.”

Khanna’s research primarily focuses on the theoretical study of atomic clusters, entities that contain up to a few dozen atoms. One particularly significant contribution involves his work with superatoms. The production and stabilization of such species is a stirring development because it opens a new branch of chemistry and material science, showing that these superatoms can be used as building blocks to form new nanoscale materials. These nanoscale materials could lead to new applications in electronics, magnetism, catalysis, sensors, medicine and other fields.

During the past several years, Khanna and his group have collaborated nationally and internationally with colleagues at VCU, Penn State University, Johns Hopkins University and the Harish Chandra Research Institute in Allahabad, India, to identify clusters that can act as halogen, alkaline earth, multiple valence and magnetic superatoms. They have demonstrated that the new building blocks can lead to new families of nanoscale materials with extraordinary attributes.

Khanna has received a number of honors for his research accomplishments, including the University Distinguished Scholarship award from VCU. In 2011, he was elected as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and honored for his research in the physics of atomic clusters, his dedication to teaching science and his service to his institution. In 2007, Khanna was named a fellow of the American Physical Society, selected by his peers in the field of physics for his research contributions. He also has twice been the recipient of the Distinguished Scholar Award from the VCU College of Humanities and Sciences.

This year’s Outstanding Faculty Award recipients will be honored during a ceremony and luncheon held at the Jefferson Hotel in Richmond on Feb. 12. Prior to the event, the 12 recipients will receive an honorary introduction on the floor of the General Assembly. The Outstanding Faculty Award program is administered by the State Council of Higher Education and funded by a grant from the Dominion Foundation, which has fully supported the program since 2005. Since the first awards ceremony in 1987, 316 Virginia faculty members, including this year's recipients, have received this high honor.