Three Assistant Professors Earn CAREER Awards
Three Assistant Professors Earn CAREER Awards
Sunday, February 28, 2016
Three assistant professors in the College of Engineering — Yi Hong, Ankur Jain and Alice Sun — have earned National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development, or CAREER, grants in 2016.
The Faculty Early Career Development Program is the NSF’s most prestigious award for junior faculty. Winners are outstanding researchers, but also are expected to be outstanding teachers through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research at their home institutions. The goal of the program is to identify faculty who have potential to become leaders in their fields and give them a significant grant to begin to realize that potential.
Yuze “Alice” Sun (Electrical Engineering)
Alice Sun is developing an all-liquid optofluidic laser that could better detect cancer in the comfort of a doctor’s office.
The new generation laser also could be used for other biosensing applications and fundamental biological and medical research as well.
Read full release about Alice Sun
An assistant professor of electrical engineering, Sun was awarded a five-year, $500,000 CAREER grant to create technology that will lead to a versatile biosensing platform featuring exceptional detection sensitivity, selectivity and throughput.
Most lasers are semiconductor-based and require solid material to create cavities to confine light. In optofluidic lasers, two-phase liquids are controlled using microfluidics and nanofluidics to form a highly efficient optical microcavity. The all-liquid nature makes the laser adaptive and achieves high-precision tuning in an unprecedented manner.
“Optofluidic lasers are unique because the microlaser can be achieved through ‘smart’ self-assembly at the liquid-liquid interface,” Sun said. “Because of this unique structure, the optofluidic laser is biocompatible and bioconfigurable. It could eventually be applied to in-vivo biosensing, although this is beyond the scope of the current project.”
Sun said she initially will explore using the optofluidic laser to detect biomarkers for cancer diagnosis and possibly other genetic disorders at the molecular and cellular level.
“This could someday lead to the creation of a point-of-care platform for clinicians to use in an office, rather than having to send samples away for analysis,” she said.
Sun’s CAREER Award is a personal feather in her cap, but also reflects a greater commitment to innovative, transformative research at UTA, said Duane Dimos, the University’s vice president for research.
“Dr. Sun’s CAREER Award represents the NSF’s stamp of approval of her status as a rising star in her field. Her work shows the sophistication of a seasoned researcher and is a stellar example of UTA’s impact on health and the human condition,” Dimos said. “The University also is committed to making technological advancements that help people live longer, healthier and happier lives, and her research exemplifies this commitment.”
Dimos called Sun’s work with liquid optical lasers innovative and the type of research that the NSF expects when awarding CAREER grants.
“Dr. Sun’s award demonstrates the University’s commitment to providing consistent opportunities for junior faculty members’ research,” Dimos said. “Dr. Sun’s work in the lab and her commitment to her students shows the power of UTA engineers to change the world for the better.”
Sun’s work is representative of how UTA is advancing research in the area of health and the human condition under the Strategic Plan 2020: Bold Solutions | Global Impact.
Yi Hong (Bioengineering)
Yi Hong is developing a polymer that will allow engineers to develop a scaffold that is flexible, conductive and biodegradable for biomedical applications such as tissue repair.
Read full release about Yi Hong
The assistant professor of bioengineering will use his five-year, $500,000 CAREER grant to create conductive, single-component and biodegradable elastomers. Hong’s technology is an advancement over conventional conductive polymers that are very stiff, hard to be processed and non-degradable.
The research holds great promise in biomedical fields such as tissue repair and drug delivery, but it also has potential to expand to biodegradable electronics and stretchable, wearable electronics.
“There is a gap between conductive polymers and biomedical technology, and many researchers have shown that conductivity can help in tissue remodeling,” Hong said. “My research will bridge the gap to design a new more conductive, biodegradable material made from a single polymer chain.”
Hong’s CAREER Award reflects his innovative nature, but also represents the university’s increasing commitment to research with multiple applications, said Duane Dimos, UTA vice president for research.
“Dr. Hong’s CAREER Award is well-deserved, and another example of the high-quality, early-career faculty we have at UTA,” Dimos said. “His research is transformative and could lead to breakthroughs in his own field, but also in other engineering fields. That type of innovative thinking is how UTA researchers make significant impacts on the world around us.”
Hong’s work also is aligned with UTA’s emphasis on advancing health and the human condition under the Strategic Plan 2020: Bold Solutions | Global Impact.
Ankur Jain (Mechanical Engineering)
Ankur Jain is working to better understand thermal transport in lithium ion batteries so that they will be safer, more efficient and more reliable.
Read full release about Ankur Jain
The assistant professor in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department earned a five-year, $500,000 CAREER grant to develop a fundamental understanding of how heat flows in materials within a Li-ion battery so that those batteries can be used safely in more applications.
Jain has carried out significant research alone and in collaboration with others energy storage, and he hopes to improve the technology based on his own findings and others’ contributions to the knowledge base.
“Li-ion batteries are used widely in electric vehicles, consumer electronics and other applications,” Jain said. “The current performance of these batteries is limited by the fact that a battery tends to overheat when discharged. Improvement in heat removal from a battery will directly improve its performance, as well as its safety and reliability.
“The end goal is to develop a fundamental understanding of the nature of how heat flows in energy conversion devices such as Li-ion cells and what impedes the flow of heat in those devices.”
Jain’s CAREER Award showcases UTA’s increasing commitment to research with potential results that can impact a broad range of theoretical and practical applications, said Anand Puppala, associate dean for research for the College of Engineering.
“Dr. Jain’s CAREER Award is well-deserved, and exemplifies the quality of UTA’s early-career faculty,” Puppala said. “His research could have a broad impact on industries that rely on Li-ion batteries to power devices, with applications from military uses, to the cars we drive, to our personal computers. That type of innovative thinking is how UTA researchers are able to change the world for the better.”
Five other UTA assistant professors have been awarded NSF CAREER Award grants recently:
Majie Fan of the Earth and Environmental Sciences Department received $485,627 in 2015 to enhance understanding of how the Rocky Mountains and how their modern, elevated landscape came to be.
W. Ashley Griffith, also of Earth and Environmental Sciences, received $400,000 in 2014 to study rock structures’ reaction to earthquakes, meteor impacts and explosions.
Hyejin Moon of the Mechanical and Aerospace Department received $400,000 in 2013 to support her work with microfluidic devices, which promise to improve 3D tissue and cell sample analyses.
Baohong Yuan in the Bioengineering Department received $407,163 in 2013 to more accurately create images for deep tissue, which could lead to earlier cancer detection.
Fuqiang Liu in the Materials Science and Engineering Department received $400,000 in 2013 to improve methods for capturing, storing and transmitting solar energy.
The College of Engineering has offered support for the last year in a push to increase the success of early-career faculty. Several of those assistant professors visited with program directors in Washington, D.C. to discuss how to successfully get their research funded.
In addition, the College hosted a workshop where young faculty reviewed successful CAREER proposals and worked with NSF program directors to write proposals in such a way that they’d have a good chance of success. Each of the CAREER winners this year took advantage of this program.
About The University of Texas at Arlington
The University of Texas at Arlington is a Carnegie “highest research activity” institution of more than 50,000 students in campus-based and online degree programs and is the second-largest institution in The University of Texas System. The Chronicle of Higher Education ranked UTA as one of the 20 fastest-growing public research universities in the nation in 2014. U.S. News & World Report ranks UTA fifth in the nation for undergraduate diversity. The University is a Hispanic-Serving Institution and is ranked as the top four-year college in Texas for veterans on Military Times’ 2016 Best for Vets list. Visit www.uta.edu to learn more, and find UTA rankings and recognition at www.uta.edu/uta/about/rankings.php.