Young faculty net numerous federal research awards

Engineering at Illinois is proud to recognize a number of junior faculty members who have been recognized with federally funded early career development awards from the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Air Force, Office of Naval Research, and others. These prestigious awards reflect the quality of proposals submitted and the promise of young researchers and educators.
 

Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE)

The Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the highest honor bestowed by the United States Government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers.

• Randy Ewoldt, mechanical science and engineering
   

National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award

The National Science Foundation’s Faculty Early Career Development Program’s (CAREER) Awards are prestigious and competitive awards given to junior faculty who exemplify 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.

• James Allison, industrial and enterprise systems engineering
• Can Bayram, electrical and computer engineering
• Princess U II Imoukhuede, bioengineering
• Liang Gao, electrical and computer engineering
• Shelby Hutchens, mechanical science and engineering
• Jessica Krogstad, materials science and engineering
• Robert Maass, materials science and engineering
• Aditya Parameswaran, computer science
• Jian Peng, computer science
• Verena Martinez Outschoorn, physics
• Charles E. Sing, chemical and biomolecular engineering
• Liang Yang, physics
• Hao Zhu, electrical and computer engineering
• Wenjuan Zhu, electrical and computer engineering

Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Program

The ONR Young Investigator Program identifies and supports young academic scientists and engineers in tenure-track appointments and who show exceptional promise for doing creative research. The program's objectives are to attract outstanding faculty members of Institutions of Higher Education to the Department of Navy's research program, to support their research, and to encourage their teaching and research careers.

• Nenad Miljkovic, mechanical science and engineering
• SungWoo Nam, mechanical science and engineering

Office of Naval Research Director of Research Early Career Grant

The ONR Director of Research Early Career Grant is a five-year award given to select applicants to the ONR Young Investigator program, based on two specific criteria: innovative research at the frontiers of science and technology that is relevant to the ONR mission, and community service demonstrated through scientific leadership and community outreach.

• Gaurav Bahl, mechanical science and engineering

Air Force Young Investigator Research Program

The Air Force Young Investigator Program is open to scientists and engineers at research institutions across the United States who received PhD or equivalent degrees in the last five years and who show exceptional ability and promise for conducting basic research. The objective of this program is to foster creative basic research in science and engineering, enhance early career development of outstanding young investigators, and increase opportunities for the young investigators to recognize the Air Force mission and the related challenges in science and engineering.

• Qian Chen, materials science and engineering
• Yuhang Hu, mechanical science and engineering
• Pinshane Huang, materials science and engineering
• Daniel Krogstad, Applied Research Institute
• Kelly Stephani, mechanical science and engineering
   

Other Research Awards

• Andrew Ferguson, materials science and engineering, 2016 Young Investigator Award for Modeling and Simulation, Computational Molecular Science and Engineering Forum of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers
• Pinshane Huang, materials science and engineering, Albert Crewe Award, Microscopy Society of America
• Dipanjan Pan, bioengineering, 2016 NML Researcher Award, sponsored by the journal Nano-Micro Letters
• Aditya Parameswaran, computer science, IEEE TCDE Early Career Award