Aerospace Engineering at Illinois Prof. John Lambros and his PhD student, Owen Kingstedt, have managed a scientific first in producing real-time, high-speed imaging of a laser strike onto a thin aluminum film, earned the 2017 Society of Experimental Mechanics M. Hetényi Award. The scientists’ research paper, entitled “Ultra-high Speed Imaging of Laser-Induced Spallation,” was chosen as the best research paper published in 2015 in SEM’s flagship journal, Experimental Mechanics.