UAB Physics Professor Yogesh K. Vohra Wins Ireland Prize for Scholarly Distinction

University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Professor and University Scholar Yogesh K. Vohra, Ph.D., internationally known expert in the field of synthetic diamonds and high pressure science, has been selected as the recipient of the 2003 Caroline P. and Charles W. Ireland Prize for Scholarly Distinction. A reception and dinner will be held in his honor at 6 p.m. Tuesday, April 1, at The Club, atop Red Mountain. Vohra also will deliver a lecture after dinner titled “Synthetic Diamonds in Science and Medicine.” For more information, or to make reservations, contact Susan Kelley at (205) 934-0771.

February 10, 2003

BIRMINGHAM, AL — University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Professor and University Scholar Yogesh K. Vohra, Ph.D., internationally known expert in the field of synthetic diamonds and high pressure science, has been selected as the recipient of the 2003 Caroline P. and Charles W. Ireland Prize for Scholarly Distinction. A reception and dinner will be held in his honor at 6 p.m. Tuesday, April 1, at The Club, atop Red Mountain. Vohra also will deliver a lecture after dinner titled “Synthetic Diamonds in Science and Medicine.” For more information, or to make reservations, contact Susan Kelley at (205) 934-0771.

UAB presents the Ireland Prize annually to a full-time faculty member in the Schools of Arts and Humanities, Natural Sciences and Mathematics or Social and Behavioral Sciences in recognition of professional and academic achievements and contributions made to the university and local community. This prize is made possible by the Caroline P. and Charles W. Ireland Endowment for Scholarly Distinction.

Vohra teaches undergraduate and graduate physics courses in the Department of Physics in the UAB School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. He also is the director of the graduate program in physics, director of UAB’s National Science Foundation-sponsored Research Experiences for Undergraduates program and campus director for the Alabama Space Grant Consortium.

He patented a process in May 1997 to grow synthetic diamonds by combining methane and hydrogen gases with high-powered microwaves. In February 2001, Vohra and UAB researcher Shane Aaron Catledge were issued a patent for the process they developed that produces a smooth nano-structured diamond film that can be deposited on metals.

Vohra has received numerous awards, including the 2000-2002 National Science Foundation Research Creativity Award. He was named a Chartered and Fellow Physicist of the Institute of Physics of the United Kingdom in 2001. He has published more than 180 research papers in notable journals, and he is on the editorial boards of the Journal of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology and High Pressure Research.

Vohra earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Delhi University in India in 1972 and 1974, respectively. He earned his doctorate from Bombay University in India in 1980. Vohra did his postdoctoral research in Germany under a Humboldt Fellowship and was on the faculty at Cornell University before joining UAB in 1992.