Qingyang Hu Received the Alvin Van Valkenburg Award

HPSTAR Staff scientist Qingyang Hu won the 2020 Alvin Van Valkenburg Award at the Gordon Research Conference (GRC). This award is given biennially in memory of Alvin Van Valkenburg, the co-inventor of the diamond anvil cell, to a young scientist working in the area of high pressure, with some preference being given to those utilizing diamond anvil cell technology.

Dr. Hu is specialized in high-pressure mineral physics. He used diamond anvil cell to discover a new iron-oxide phase FeO2 through the water-iron interaction at the deep lower mantle conditions. The discovery provides a sporadic, deep source of oxygen giving rise to the Great Oxidation Event. Its presence in the deep lower mantle may also explain the seismic and electric anomalies at certain depth

His travel was supported by the Alvin Van Valkenburg Memorial Fund and at the conference, which was held in Holderness NH of USA, he was invited to give a talk with the title “Chemistry, transport properties and architecture of dense water-bearing phases”. The award was bestowed by the 2016 GRC Chair, Professor Shanti Deemyad from University of Utah.

Both GRC and the award ceremony of the year 2020 have postponed to 2022 due to the COVID.