Eighteen SUNY junior faculty win prestigious NSF CAREER Awards
Eighteen State University of New York (SUNY) researchers have won the National Science Foundation’s most prestigious award for early-career faculty. The grants, which total more than $9.5 million, will support research and educational outreach in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, autonomous robots, 3D printing, computer science, wireless communication networks, optoelectronics and photonics, materials science and power systems.
The funding illustrates SUNY’s success in attracting some of the world’s finest young researchers to New York State. The intent of the NSF CAREER awards is to provide five years of stable support for junior faculty to develop their careers as outstanding researchers as well as committed educators who advance teaching, learning and the dissemination of knowledge.
Recipients of the grants come from four SUNY campuses – Binghamton University, Stony Brook University, the University at Albany and the University at Buffalo.
SUNY’s NSF CAREER award winners:
- Tim Cook, assistant professor of chemistry at the University at Buffalo, to design self-assembling molecules and work with K-12 science teachers to create 3-D printed magnetic structures that self-assemble in the classroom. Self-assembly allows researchers to explore the properties of many different molecules quickly. Award amount: $675,000
- Karthik Dantu, assistant professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University at Buffalo, to investigate how to shift the computing power needed for vision-sensing applications from devices to the cloud. The work, which includes educational outreach, could have applications in wearable technology, such as smart glasses; medical imaging; autonomous vehicles and other fields. Award amount: $549,369
- Marco Gaboardi, assistant professor of computer science and engineering at the University at Buffalo, to develop new verification techniques for tools that preserve privacy, especially during the collection, analysis and storing of large sets of personal data. The project, which will train students in cybersecurity, will also involve investigating new ways to improve policy and standards for securing digital data. Award amount: $496,573
- Thomas Graf, assistant professor of linguistics at Stony Brook University, to identify universal properties of sentence structure and formalize them in a mathematical format that is suitable for computers. Award amount: $423,833
- Josep Jornet, associate professor of electrical engineering at the University at Buffalo, to develop networking protocols for wireless communications at terahertz-band frequencies. Award amount: $546,182
- David Lacy, assistant professor of chemistry at the University at Buffalo, will synthesize new catalysts based on manganese, which is abundant and non-toxic, and explore their basic reactions for potential use in a variety of processes. Award amount: $650,000
- Shi Li, assistant professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University at Buffalo, to further his work in theoretical computer science, specifically to improve scheduling algorithms and ultimately make computers smarter. Award amount: $500,034
- Peter Q. Liu, assistant professor of electrical engineering at the University at Buffalo, to develop new sensing and imaging techniques that could drive the development of new technologies in health care, environmental protection, homeland security, renewable energy and more. Award amount: $500,661
- Nils Napp, assistant professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University at Buffalo, to design algorithms to help robots overcome unpredictable environments, such as uneven terrain and other obstacles. The idea is to make robots, even autonomous robots, easy to program so roboticists can quickly adapt them to solve new problems as they arise. Award amount: $498,619
- Ming-Yu Ngai, assistant professor of chemistry at Stony Brook University, to develop new and efficient photochemical reactions to prepare chiral organic molecules. New synthetic methods developed in this research may have applications in the syntheses of pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, and materials chemistry. Award amount: $675,000
- Mostafa Nouh, assistant professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University at Buffalo, to model and synthesize a new class of materials, referred to as metamaterials, which manipulate mechanical and acoustic waves (in other words, sound) in unique and unprecedented ways. These metamaterials could be useful in a broad range of applications, ranging from wind turbines and engine mounts to medical imaging and aerospace structures. Award amount: $500,000
- Scott Schiffres, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Binghamton University, to explore new alloys that cool more quickly than materials in current use. Award amount: $500,000
- Jia Sheng, assistant professor of Chemistry and The RNA Institute at the University at Albany, to study the structures and functions of natural RNA modifications, and to develop molecular tools for gene regulation based on these modifications. Award amount: $600,000
- Sergey Syritsyn, assistant professor of physics, Stony Brook University, to perform precise theoretical calculations of nucleon structure. Award amount: $450,000
- Mariya Zheleva, assistant professor of computer science at the University at Albany, to establish a scientific and technological framework for automated spectrum measurement in support of shared-spectrum access. Award amount: $510,494
- Chi Zhou, assistant professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University at Buffalo, to investigate how to use frozen water in the 3D-printing process to create novel materials which could lead to improvements in energy production, health care, environmental protection, the aerospace and automotive industries, and other fields. Award amount: $500,000
- Ning Zhou, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Binghamton University, to work on both the theoretical and applied aspects of the future of power generation, transmission and distribution. The project aims to lay the groundwork for transforming power-systems operations to a dynamic paradigm that is modernized to host more renewable generation. Award amount: $500,000
- Jaroslaw Zola, assistant professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University at Buffalo, to create software systems and algorithms that will make high-performance computing more accessible in artificial intelligence research, with applications in biomedicine and health care. Award amount: $487,569
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