Hope Long, a Chemistry PhD Candidate, was selected to receive the UGA Graduate School Dissertation Completion Award. This competitive award is given to only 10 graduate students per year and is used to facilitate writing their dissertation during their final year of study.

Hope Long is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Georgia, studying under Dr. Vladislav Klepov. Her research focuses on developing enhanced materials by combining exploratory synthesis with detailed structural and magnetic characterization to uncover and rationally tune new intermetallic systems. Long’s dissertation centers on the HfCuSi₂- and related structure types, where subtle changes in composition or symmetry can dramatically reshape magnetic ground states and electronic behavior. By strategically designing and synthesizing new phases within these structure types, Long aims to establish clear composition- and structure-property relationships that enable targeted control of magnetism in complex materials relevant to energy conversion, spintronics, and next-generation quantum technologies.

Long completed her Associate of Applied Science in criminal justice technology at North Georgia Technical College in 2017 before attending the University of North Georgia where she received both her Associate of Science in biology and Bachelor of Science in chemistry in 2022. During her time as a graduate student, Long has authored numerous publications in peer-reviewed journals, including one in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS), as well as a comprehensive chapter in the Handbook on the Physics and Chemistry of Rare Earths (HPCRE). Following the completion of her degree, Long aims to obtain a postdoctoral position at a national lab, where she plans to apply her experience in actinide and lanthanide chemistry to research nuclear fuels and waste remediation.