Graduate student Nathan Orloff, advised by professor Ichiro Takeuchi and James Booth, NIST, was named the runner-up in the competition for the Block Award for Best Experimental Poster Presentation at the International Workshop on Fundamental Physics of Ferroelectrics and Related Materials, held at the Aspen Center for Physics. He was recognized for his paper and presentation, titled "Strained-induced Ferroelectricity in Ruddlesden-Popper Srn+1TinO3n+1."

Orloff also recently received the 2009-2010 Michael J. Pelczar Award for Excellence in Graduate Study.