Princeton Engineering graduate student Ning Wu has been awarded the University’s highest honor for graduate students, the Porter Ogden Jacobus Fellowship. Each year, only four individuals whose work displays the highest scholarly excellence receive the Jacobus fellowship, which supports the final year of graduate study.

Wu, a Ph.D. candidate in chemical engineering, is originally from China and earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemical engineering from the National University of Singapore. His research focuses on a relatively new phenomenon that may offer a simple way to make microscopic and submicroscopic patterns on very thin polymer films. His work could have applications in a broad range of electrical, mechanical and biological devices.

“Ning is an extraordinary young man with a bright future ahead of him,” said his adviser William Russel, dean of the Graduate School and the Arthur W. Marks ’19 Professor of Chemical Engineering. “His facility with theory and computation is impressive, but he also picks up experimental tools easily. With both equations and experiments, he probes deeply to understand the mechanisms and develop a sound physical intuition.”

In addition to the Jacobus fellowship, Wu received the Kristine M. Layn Award for Outstanding Achievement in Research from the Department of Chemical Engineering in 2006. He is the current president of the Council of International Graduate Students, a group which organizes events with an international flavor and provides opportunities for students to gain exposure to different cultures.