At the ASM Student Night, two AME graduate students won first and second prizes in the graduate division for their poster presentations.

Student Night is an annual event of the Los Angeles Chapter of ASM Internation (The Materials Information Society). This meeting of the chapter offers undergraduate and graduate student the opportunity to present their research in a public forum. This year's event was held April 17, 2012, at Cirivello's Restaurant in Long Beach. The winning USC-AME students were 2 Ph.D. candidates, Yifu Zhao and Tim Furnish. Zhao, a student of AME Prof. Mike Kassner, presented a poster, "Thermal Stability of UFG [ultra fine grained] and Nanotwinned Copper Films," to take first place while Furnish, a student of Prof. Andrea Hodge, took second with "Deformation and Microstructural Changes of Highly Nanotwinned Cu under Tension."

At this meeting the Los Angeles Chapter also presents merit-based scholarships to undergraduate and graduate students living in the Southern California area served by the Los Angeles, San Fernando, Orange Coast and the former South Bay Chapters of ASM and who have a Materials Science/Metallurgy/Materials Engineering or similar major. Additioinal seclection criteria include a demonstrated strength in academics as well as leadership and character. AME master's degree candidate Marc Davidson was awarded one of the scholarships.

The July, 2012, issue of ASM's monthly publication, Advanced Materials & Processes, contained a short article about Student Night (on p. 41).

Michael O'Brien, Los Angeles Chapter Chair presents Y. Zhao with a check for the first prize, graduate division in the Student Night poster conference.

Tim Furnish received second prize, graduate division, in the Student Night poster conference at the Los Angeles Chapter of ASM International.

Marc Davidson receives a scholarship check from Dick Berryman, a member of the Scholarship Committee for the Los Angeles Chapter.