ORONO — Linda S. Dake, a graduate research assistant at the University of Maine’s Laboratory for Surface Science and Technology — Sawyer Research Center, recently was named recipient of an American Vacuum Society Student Prize.

The prize is one of 10 awarded each year in the nation for excellence in graduate studies in science and technology. The prize is a cash award, certificate and support of travel expenses for attendance at the AVS Annual Symposium Monday through Friday, Oct. 8-12, in Toronto.

Dake is a resident of Old Town and works in surface science research at the university. Before coming to the university in 1989, she was research scientist for the Battelle-Pacific Northwest Laboratory in Richland, Wash. She holds a master’s degree in chemistry from Washington State University, a bachelor’s degree in physics from Whitman College, Walla Walla, Wash., and is a candidate for a doctoral degree in physics at the University of Maine.