#  Yao Receives National Brown Investigator Award 

 





May 31, 2024

 

 

     ![Headshot of Professor Norman Yao](/sites/g/files/omnuum6476/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2025-01/news-Yao.jpg?itok=MKMF-MXY) 

 



 

The Brown Institute for Basic Sciences at Caltech announced the [2024 class of Brown Investigators](https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/caltech-announces-eight-recipients-of-the-2024-national-brown-investigator-award). The cohort, the first selected through the newly formed Brown Institute for Basic Sciences, comprises eight distinguished mid-career faculty working on fundamental challenges in the physical sciences, particularly those with potential long-term practical applications in chemistry and physics. Each investigator will receive up to $2 million over five years.

The Brown Institute for basic Sciences at Caltech was established in 2023 to advance fundamental science discoveries with the potential to seed breakthroughs that benefit society.

Prof. Yao, one of the eight recipients of the award, intends to use the funds to develop a way to use a thin layer of microscopic sensors embedded into the surface of a diamond anvil to image the microscopic behavior of materials at high pressure.

**Congratulations, Prof. Yao!**  
(For more informaiton, please read the [article in The Gazette](https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/newsplus/norman-yao-receives-2m-brown-investigator-award/) by Anne J. Manning.)