International X-ray Absorption Society Honors Frenkel With Highest Award

Professor Anatoly Frenkel first learned about his lifelong passion when he was a graduate student in physics at Tel-Aviv University, and his PhD advisor sent him to study in America at the University of Washington, with Professor Edward Stern, the founder of the technique known as X-ray absorption spectroscopy ("XAS").

Frenkel, who holds positions at Stony Brook University as a professor in the Department of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering and an affiliate professor in the Department of Chemistry, as well as a senior chemist at Brookhaven National Laboratory, was drawn to this, then a relatively young field, as it has the unique potential to "see," as he explains, "nanoscale details in materials that are otherwise too small from being detected." The other two commonly used characterization methods are scattering such as x-ray diffraction and imaging such as electron microscopy.

"My research is aimed at learning how the tiny details of working materials - most often nanomaterial - affect their mechanisms of use," said Frenkel.

Frenkel, who once organized a symposium at Brookhaven National Laboratory on celebrating the 50th anniversary of this technique, spends his hours in the lab trying to locate details that are invisible to the best microscopes. He searches for "active units," knobs that can be turned on to make materials work. For example, certain types of atoms in nanoparticles are active units in catalysts.

Frenkel said, "If we could get a handle on this problem we will rationally make materials better-and will be able to design new ones, if we understand the main principles for particular fields of technology. It has a lot of potential for innovations."

The International X-ray Absorption Society ("IXAS") hosted its 19th International Conference in Chiang, Mai, Thailand from June 21-26. It has been held every third year in various regions around the world since its inception in 1981. This year, the society presented its highest award for an individual working with XAS, the Edward Stern Prize - named after the late world renowned physicist from the University of Washington - to Frenkel, who was once his postdoc.

"Ed made a huge impact in my view of science, and it means the world to me that this award carries his name," said Frenkel. Frenkel was selected from nominations across all academic disciplines, including both experimental and theoretical studies of X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS).

Frenkel joined Stony Brook University in 2016. Previously he was a professor at Yeshiva University and held research positions at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Washington, Tel Aviv University and Institute of Acoustics in St. Petersburg.

For over 20 years, he has served as the co-director of the Synchrotron Catalysis Consortium at Brookhaven National Laboratory. He organizes and teaches annual short courses in foundations of XAS to newcomers. "We already have a second generation of participants joining our courses," he said, "the students of those who attended our early courses."

As Frenkel explained, every experimentalist has one or more techniques that they specialize in. "We of course are not using XAS as the only tool, and our group has also developed new methods of performing XAS experiments under real operating conditions - such as working catalysts - and in combination with other techniques. We also spend time educating new generations of scientists in these methods."

"We are incredibly proud of Anatoly for receiving this prestigious and well-deserved honor. There is a full-circle moment in him winning the highest award in his field named after Edward Stern, who made a profound impact as a mentor to him," said Dilip Gersappe, professor and chair of the Department of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering. "Anatoly's pioneering work in X-ray absorption spectroscopy has pushed the boundaries of what we can understand at the nanoscale, and his dedication to teaching ensures that his legacy-and Professor Stern's-will continue to inspire generations of scientists to come."

Andrew Singer, dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, said, "Anatoly's success reflects exactly what we hope to build at Stony Brook University Engineering - research that thrives at the intersection of disciplines and institutions, anchored by our partnership with Brookhaven National Laboratory. This honor is richly deserved, and it's a credit to the kind of collaborative, boundary-pushing science he's championed throughout his career."

Frenkel's areas of research include the physico-chemical properties and mechanistic studies of functional nanomaterials; heterogeneous and photo-catalysis with nanoparticles, clusters and "single atoms;"multimodal methodologies for materials' characterization; machine learning methods for materials research and discovery; and the development of synchrotron-based techniques and data analysis methods.

Frenkel earned his Master of Science from St. Petersburg University, his doctorate from Tel Aviv University, and his post-doctoral fellowship from the University of Washington, all in physics.

Some of his other notable honors include the American Ceramic Society's Ross Coffin Purdy Award (2025); the Schulich Visiting Professor Lectureship Award from Technion in Israel (2025); and being named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2023) and the American Physical Society (2017).

- Debra Scala Giokas