Stony Brook Announces Three 2025 Discovery Prize Finalists
Three Stony Brook University faculty have been named finalists for the 2025 Stony Brook Foundation Discovery Prize.
This $200,000 award recognizes early-career researchers who are driving scientific breakthroughs and advancing Stony Brook’s reputation as a hub of research innovation.
The 2025 finalists and their groundbreaking research projects are:
Jennifer Cano, associate professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy
Theoretical Framework for the Discovery of Topological Moiré Materials
Cano studies the emergent properties of quantum materials; specifically, topological phases of matter. Her research focuses on fundamental principles such as classification, and she also predicts new material platforms to realize exotic quantum phases. Cano developed the theory of topological quantum chemistry, which combines group theory, topology and chemistry, to predict new topological materials. She earned her PhD from the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 2015. She subsequently was a postdoctoral fellow at the Princeton Center for Theoretical Science. Cano, who came to Stony Brook in 2018 as an assistant professor, holds a visiting scholar appointment at the Flatiron Institute.
Paolo Celli, assistant professor, Department of Civil Engineering
Load-Bearing Enviro-Morphing Structures
Celli’s expertise is in solid and structural mechanics, structural dynamics and wave physics. His group leverages precision desktop experiments, in-house fabrication, numerical simulations and simple theoretical derivations to devise and understand the mechanics of structural systems characterized by unprecedented functionalities capable of adapting to the environment around them. His research focuses on shape-morphing structures, dynamic structures with time-evolving properties, structures for civil engineering robotics and structures for renewable energy. Celli joined SBU in January 2020. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Università Politecnica delle Marche and Politecnico di Torino, respectively, and earned his PhD in civil engineering from the University of Minnesota in 2017.
Yifan Zhou, assistant professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Revolutionizing Power Grid Computing Through Quantum-Driven Analytics
Working at the intersection of power systems, quantum computing and machine learning, Zhou and her students are developing intelligent, adaptive and ultrascalable power system operations to advance the transition toward a provably resilient energy sector. She is particularly interested in designing use-inspired artificial intelligence and quantum solutions to support real-time analysis and decision-making for ultrascale power systems with massive distributed resources. Prior to her appointment to her current position in 2022, Zhou was a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. She received her PhD in 2019 and her bachelor’s degree with the highest distinction in 2014, both from Tsinghua University.
The three finalists will present their research on March 6 at 2:30 pm in the Charles B. Wang Center Theatre. These presentations, prepared with guidance from the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science, will be evaluated by a panel of distinguished judges, with the winner announced at the event’s conclusion.
To register to attend this event and for more information on these exceptional scholars, please visit stonybrook.edu/discoveryprize.
The Discovery Prize, established in 2013 with a generous donation from the Stony Brook Foundation’s Board of Trustees, celebrates bold, pioneering research that has the potential to reshape scientific fields and solve complex global challenges. It is also a means to advance the career of a rising star on the Stony Brook faculty whose ideas may be so revolutionary and so contrary to convention that funding agencies would be unlikely to provide support.
“The development of the MRI technology is just one of the many breakthrough discoveries over the past decades that have earned Stony Brook its outstanding reputation as a prestigious research institution,” said Stony Brook Interim President Richard L. McCormick in his campus message announcing the finalists. “To maintain this legacy, it is crucial to keep fundamental research at the core of Stony Brook’s mission by encouraging our brightest minds to pursue ambitious ideas that shape our world and create lasting positive change for future generations.”
Past winners include:
Chris Johnson, an associate professor in the College of Arts and Sciences Department of Chemistry, won the 2023 Stony Brook Discovery Prize for his research on creating particles to manufacture clouds in order to temper the impact of climate change.
Eszter Boros, an assistant professor in the College of Arts and Sciences Department of Chemistry, won the 2021 Stony Brook Discovery Prize for her research on developing new imaging agents and therapeutics for cancer applications.
Il Memming Park, an associate professor in the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior in the College of Arts and Sciences and the Renaissance School of Medicine, won the prize in 2019 for his research on using neurotechnologies and machine learning methods to better understand the brain in unconscious states.
Thomas Allison, an associate professor with a joint appointment between the Department of Chemistry and Department of Physics and Astronomy in the College of Arts and Sciences, won in 2017 for his research on how electrons move within molecules.
Laurie Krug, an associate professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology in the Renaissance School of Medicine, won the inaugural Discovery Prize in 2014 for her research on viruses associated with cancer and the idea of delivering molecular scissors to the site of virus infection using nanoparticles.