Physics graduate student Maria Daniil has been awarded one of only two financial grants in the country from the Magnetic Materials Producers Association, becoming the first woman ever to receive the award.

Every year, the association gives two $5,000 grants to applicants who show strong interest in magnetics or magnetic materials.

Daniil, who holds a bachelor's degree in physics, is working in the field of high-performance Nd-Fe-B (neodymium-iron-boron) permanent magnets. She is trying to substitute carbon for boron to obtain a nanocomposite magnet with improved properties.

Daniil says her adviser, George Hadjipanayis, Richard B. Murray Professor of Physics, encouraged her to apply for the award.

"She is a solid worker and a perfectionist," Hadjipanayis says. "I chose her because of those traits."

In April, Daniil learned that she will receive the national award again, for a second consecutive year.

High-performance magnets--the most powerful magnets in the world--are used in everything from computers and car motors to MRI machines.

Daniil says she knew the grants were highly competitive and was pleasantly surprised when she learned she was among four finalists. After a telephone interview with the chairperson of the award committee, she says, she worried that she had been too honest about the difficulty of her research.

"I couldn't lie," she says. "Research has ups and downs--mostly downs."

She says she also read over the list of previous winners and realized that all the names were male.

"When I got the final letter a few months later, I could not believe that I was one of two winners," she says. "It has inspired me and motivated me."

--Drew Chyzus, AS 2002