The 2020 Carolina Science Symposium, co-organized by the AVS Mid-Atlantic Chapter, Carolinas Central Chapter of ASM International, and local MRS chapter, successfully held their annual event virtually on 12-13 November with 106 registrants from around the Mid-Atlantic region. The event was comprised of four 90-120 min sessions spanning the 2 days (morning and afternoon sessions each day) with 4 live invited talks, 19 pre-recorded student oral presentations, 14 student posters complete with audio description of the posters, and an AVS short course on Atomic Layer Etching by Steve George the day before the symposium. Students were available via the Zoom platform for Q&A at the end of their recorded presentations. Vendor advertisements were sprinkled throughout the sessions giving vendors an opportunity to showcase their products and services. Several prizes totaling $3100 were awarded to student presentation and student poster winners through the gracious support of Mid-Atlantic AVS, NCSU Analytical Instrumentation Facility, NCSU Nanoscale Fabrication facility, Micross AIT, and ten vendor sponsors. Despite the move to a virtual meeting this year, the participation and support for the event, as well as the quality of presentations and posters, made for a very successful and enjoyable event. Thanks to all those that participated and supported the symposium. We hope to see you in person at the 2021 symposium!
By: John Lannon, Micross Advanced Interconnect Technology
Sihan Wang 
Shelby Boyd 
Salvatore Luiso 
Saeed Saeed 
Jon Meyers 
Mariana Vasquez 
Gayani Pathiraja 
Aurore Canoville 
Alex Hsain 
All Winners 
Uthpala Herath
2020 CSS Award Winners
AIF Best Paper ($200 each)
1 Aurore Canoville, NCSU
2 Shelby Boyd, NCSU
NNF Best Student Presentation Oral or Poster ($200 used and acknowledged NNF facilities)
Alex Hsain, NCSU
ASM Hans Stadelmaier Award ($100 Best X-Ray diffraction technique presentation)
Gayani Pathiraja, UNCG
Student Poster 3rd Place (1/2) ($100 sponsored by All Scientific)
Saeed Saeed, NCSU
Student Poster 3rd Place (2/2) ($100 sponsored by All Scientific)
Gayani Pathiraja, JSNN
Student Poster 2nd Place ($200 sponsored by Kurt Lesker Company)
Ziyu Yin, JSNN
Student Poster 1st Place ($400 sponsored by ThermoFisher)
Sihan Wang, NCSU
Student Oral 1st session ($100)
Jon Meyers, UNC
Student Oral 2nd session ($100)
Salvatore Luiso, NCSU/Simone Wall, Duke (tie)
Student Oral 3rd session ($100)
Mariana Vasquez, Duke
Student Oral 4th session ($100)
Leo Brody, NCSU
Student Oral 3rd Place (1/2) ($100)
Alex Hsain, NCSU
Student Oral 3rd Place (2/2) ($100)
Simone Wall, Duke
Student Oral 2nd Place ($300)
Salvatore Luiso, NCSU
Student Oral 1st Place ($500 sponsored by Mid-Atlantic AVS)
Jon Meyers, UNC
Two $50 gift cards
1 Gayani Pathiraja, UNCG
2 Uthpala Herath UWV
Total $3000