July 7, 2005
UW profs win Early Career Award
Four UW faculty members are among 58 of the nation’s most promising young scientists and engineers, recognized at the White House recently as winners of this year’s Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering.
Two UW winners are with the School of Engineering, Wei Li, associate professor of engineering, and Rahda Poovendran, assistant professor of mechanical engineering. David S. Ginger is an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry and William R. Grady, assistant professor of medical science at the UW and assistant member of the clinical research division at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (see story in the Uweek Health Sciences section).
“We spent about 45 minutes with the president,” said Poovendran after the White House ceremony. “It was great.”
Arden L. Bement Jr., director of the National Science Foundation (NSF), one of the eight federal agencies that supported the researchers, praised the winners as representing the next generation of leading research. “These presidential awardees are the young people who will lead our nation’s progress in science and engineering as they leap the fences, cross the boundaries and build the blocks of new and exciting areas of science,” Bement said.
The award was established in 1996 to honor the nation’s most promising beginning researchers. Each year, eight federal departments and agencies nominate young scientists and engineers whose work shows exceptional promise in expanding the frontiers of scientific knowledge in the coming century. The agencies fund award winners for up to five years so they can further their research in critical areas.
The four UW Early Career Award winners’ research work branches out in several directions:
- Wei Li is studying a fabrication process to create polymer-based, porous microstructures that will lead to new applications in emerging technologies such as fuel cells, biochemical sensors and controlled drug-delivery devices. His focus on interdisciplinary training helps prepare students for the rapidly changing engineering profession. Li is sponsored by the NSF.
- Radha Poovendran was honored for accomplishments in applied cryptography in resource-constrained wireless networks, groundbreaking work on entropy techniques for multi-sensor security, discovering novel algorithms and foundational work on cross-layer design techniques. He was also recognized for teaching and graduate student mentoring. The U.S. Department of Defense is Poovendran’s sponsor.
- David S. Ginger conducts groundbreaking work in the area of bio-inspired assembly. His research has helped solve vexing problems in the lithographic patterning of biomolecules on a surface. He was also recognized for teaching and mentoring undergraduate students in nanotechnology research. Ginger is also sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense.
- William M. Grady was awarded for his contributions to understanding the mechanisms of colon cancer formation, a leading cause of cancer deaths for patients in hospitals for veterans.
