Who was Lena Kourkoutis? American Scientist Dead at 44

Famous American scientist, Lena Kourkoutis has died at the age of 44 after suffering from a two-year colonic cancer. Her death occurred on June 24, 2023.

Kourkoutis was nominated for the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. He worked in the field of electron microscopy, and professor of applied and engineering physics at Cornell University. Her research focuses on the use of an aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscope, providing atomic resolution, at cryogenic temperatures (>77K) to study physical processes such as superconductivity and biological structures such as proteins.

“Cornell Engineering is deeply saddened that Professor Lena F. Kourkoutis, Ph. D ’09, who was internationally recognized for her advances in cryo-electron microscopy, passed away on June 24,” Cornell University announced her death officially on their social media platform.

She was a recipient of numerous awards including Fellow of the American Physical Society (2022), Kurt Heinrich Awards for Microanalysis Society (2020), Burton Medal from the Microscopy Society of America (2018), Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (2016), Packard Fellowship For Science and Engineering (2014), and more.