CAREER AWARDS
Several U. of I. faculty members have received CAREER Awards (also known as the Faculty Early Career Development Program) from the National Science Foundation.
Some of the recipients and their research proposals or area of study:
- Elif Ertekin, mechanical science and engineering, whose research includes computational modeling, nanoscale mechanical properties, energy storage and conversion and defect-property relationships. Her CAREER Award was for research titled “Designing Functionality Into Two-Dimensional Materials Through Defects, Topology, and Disorder.”
- David W. Flaherty, chemical and biomolecular engineering, “Molecular Understanding and Catalyst Design for the Direct Synthesis of H2O2.” Flaherty’s work aims to develop the fundamental insight needed to develop catalysts for on-site, efficient production of hydrogen peroxide. This approach could potentially eliminate use of environmentally taxing chlorine-based oxidants in many industrial processes.
- Yuhang Hu, mechanical science and engineering, “Mechanics and Physics at the Boundary Between Solid and Fluid: Probing the Thermodynamic and Kinetic Properties of Gels.” Her project will develop a new experimental technique for characterizing the nonlinear thermodynamic and kinetic properties of gels based on an indentation method. This will allow gels to be categorized under different environmental conditions and provide an understanding of the structure-property relations of these materials.
- Kami Hull ,chemistry, received the award to fund her research on “Rhodium-Catalyzed Oxidative Functionalization Reactions.” Her research focuses on the development of and mechanistic studies on transition-metal catalyzed reactions.
- Cecilia Leal, materials science and engineering. Leal’s research group is developing smart materials capable of interfacing with the human body to heal wounds, repair bones and deliver drugs, vaccines and antibiotics through a programmable delivery system. The award also recognized Leal’s plans to bring science, technology, engineering and mathematics education to three different populations – middle school and incoming graduate students and inmates at a local prison.
- Lijun Liu, geophysics in the department of geology, “CAREER: Investigating the Causes and Consequences of Flat-Slab Subduction in Lithosphere Evolution.” Recycling of oceanic plates into the Earth interior as a consequence of plate tectonics has important effects on mountain building, basin formation, and the occurrence of volcanic and earthquake hazards. In his proposal, he aims at a quantitative understanding of these tectonic processes using predictive physical models that are based on advanced numerical methods and supercomputers. The study regions include North America, South America and East Asia.
- Ting Lu, bioengineering. Lu’s award will further his research on bacterial communities, which are important to the environment, agriculture and human health. Lu plans to advance his work by employing an interdisciplinary approach that combines experimental synthetic biology with advanced mathematical modeling. Specifically, he will use engineered coli as controllable model systems for systematic experimental examination. In parallel, he will use his expertise in mathematical analysis and computational modeling to construct a biophysical platform for developing a theory of bacterial competition.
- Nenad Miljkovic, mechanical science and engineering, studies phase change heat transfer (boiling, evaporation, condensation and freezing), fluid mechanics, microfabrication and nanofabrication, interfacial phenomena and solar energy conversion. His CAREER Award was for research titled “Investigation of Nucleation Dynamics on Nanoengineered Surfaces for Durable and High Heat Flux Condensation Phase Change Applications.”
- SungWoo Nam, mechanical science and engineering, does research focusing on nanoscale materials, nanoelectromechanical systems, flexible electronics and nanobio interface. His laboratory focuses on nanoengineering graphene and two-dimensional materials-based nanostructures and devices for multifunctionality. His CAREER Award was for his research titled “Corrugated Graphene Superlattice Structures by Strain-induced Shrink Nanomanufacturing.”
- Sewoong Oh ,industrial and enterprise engineering, “Social Computation: Fundamental Limits and Efficient Algorithms.” His research is in social computing and how to improve social computing systems. His proposal involves research specifically related to crowdsourcing, a labor market increasing in popularity that involves using many people to complete large tasks.
- André Schleife, materials science and engineering, has gotten funding for his research group, which is developing a multiscale approach for the computational design and discovery of optical materials that bridges the simulation gap between several atoms and actual optical materials.
- Josh Vura-Weis, chemistry, received the award to fund his research on “Tabletop Extreme Ultraviolet Spectroscopy of Femtosecond Spin Crossover Dynamics.” His group uses advanced laser techniques to study the excited-state electronic and vibrational dynamics of inorganic and organometallic systems.
The award is given to junior faculty members who demonstrate the role of teacher-scholar through outstanding research, excellent education, and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their respective organizations. The program will provide five years of support for each faculty member’s research.
