Pierre Deymier's NewFoS wins Innovator of the Year award
Materials science and engineering professor Pierre Deymier directs the New Frontiers of Sound Science and Technology Center, winner of the 2025 Governor's Innovator of the Year Award in the academia category.
The University of Arizona’s New Frontiers of Sound Science and Technology Center (NewFoS) research team won the Governor’s “Innovator of the Year – Academia” award at the Celebration of Innovation event on Nov. 12. The honor, organized by the Arizona Technology Council and Arizona Commerce Authority, recognizes trailblazers in Arizona.
(From left) Derick Maggard, Araceli Hernández-Granados, NewFoS Director Pierre Deymier, Lynn Frazier, Rakhi Gibbons and Doug Hockstad.
Pierre Deymier, a professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, directs NewFoS. He is a leading researcher in phononics – a field at the intersection of physics and materials science that explores how sound waves move through materials.
The National Science Foundation granted the U of A $30 million to establish the center in 2023. NewFoS accelerates research on topological acoustics. Topological acoustics maps sound waves to an abstract multidimensional space to examine their geometry. By examining sound in this way, scientists can see and manipulate attributes of sound waves that aren't visible in traditional acoustics.
Deymier – a faculty member of the BIO5 Institute and the applied mathematics graduate interdisciplinary program – accepted the award with team members Araceli Hernández-Granados, knowledge transfer research scientist, and Lynn Frazier, research manager.
“This award recognizes the hard work and commitment to innovation of all NewFoS students, staff and faculty,” Deymier said.