PRESIDENT BUSH NAMES 20 NSF-SUPPORTED YOUNG SCIENTISTS AND ENGINEERS FOR AWARDS

      President Bush today honored 60 of the nation's best young scientists and engineers with the 2001 Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE).  The awards were presented at the White House to 20 National Science Foundation (NSF)-supported researchers, and to 40 more scientists and engineers under programs sponsored by other federal departments and agencies.  NSF is highly represented among the overall field because of the agency's large role in fundamental research among many science and engineering disciplines.

      NSF's nominees for PECASE are drawn from junior faculty members receiving grants from NSF's CAREER program, considered the agency's most prestigious for new faculty members.  CAREER participants are promising young researchers in science and engineering fields who have also translated their work into significant education activities.  NSF provides significant monetary awards, which range from $200,000 to more than $700,000 over five years, to support the career development of these teacher-scholars who are most likely to become the academic leaders of the 21st Century.

      "These young scientific leaders are pushing frontiers, communicating their unique knowledge to students and setting standards we all should emulate," NSF Director Rita Colwell said. "They have done ground-breaking work in sophisticated fields such as tissue engineering, smart materials, nanoscale electronic devices and polymers and DNA computing.  A century ago, Nobel Prizes honored discoveries such as the X-ray and serum therapy for the highly contagious diphtheria.  Today's awardees will push advances in bold, new interdisciplinary fields that seemed unimaginable only a short time ago -- but will keep our nation at the forefront of global innovation and make the world a better place in the 21st century."

      Of the 20 NSF-supported PECASE recipients, seven are women and five are from underrepresented groups.  They represent the best of the nearly 400 NSF CAREER program grant recipients in 2001.  Just over 2,500 CAREER awards have been made since the program began in 1996.  With today's White House presentation, there are now 100 NSF supported PECASE recipients among the 300 honored government-wide since the start of the award.

      NSF honorees under PECASE receive no additional money beyond their initial CAREER grants, but the presidential recognition carries significant prestige, and recipients represent the best among young researchers and educators from the CAREER program. 

Summary of achievements of NSF-supported 2001 PECASE recipients:

ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE

NSF-NOMINATED

2001 PECASE RECIPIENTS

Dr. Philip John Bart, Assistant Professor at Louisiana State

University, leads new studies in gathering and deciphering high

resolution seismic records of glacial deposits.  The research is

adding greatly to understanding the reasoning behind the advance

and retreat of the Antarctic ice sheet during the recent geologic

past.  Bart innovatively integrates his research into both

university and secondary school science teaching, serving as a

role model for minority students.

Dr. Karen Jane Burg, Assistant Professor at Clemson University,

has established a nationally recognized and innovative research

program in breast tissue engineering for cancer patients, with

the potential for widespread medical uses in areas such as liver

repair, cartilage replacement and other conditions.  Burg's K-12

educational awareness programs and outreach activities in

bioengineering promote critical thinking in this growing field.

Dr. Brian David Conrad, Assistant Professor at the University of

Michigan, is a leading theoretical research mathematician in the

study of elliptical curves and is also at the forefront of study

in arithmetic algebraic geometry and number theory.   His

excellence as an advisor has brought scholarships and awards for

high school students and undergraduates, and his informal

activities include creating high school and undergraduate

mathematics clubs, and judging national and international-level

science fairs.

Dr. Steven Andrew Cummer, Assistant Professor at Duke University,

is developing an innovative technique for remote sensing of the

least-explored upper regions of the atmosphere, using

electromagnetic radiation from lightning to determine this

region's variability and its connections to other atmospheric

regions and climate.  He is using this knowledge to develop an

electromagnetics curriculum for the classroom and for graduate

and undergraduate student training.

Dr. Elizabeth Anna Davis, Assistant Professor at the University

of Michigan, is undertaking important research on how teachers,

in the crucial first years of their professional experience,

learn how to teach inquiry-based science using a supportive,

technology-mediated learning environment that identifies the

links between the teachers' learning, their practice of teaching,

and students' learning.  She is developing an integrated

instructional resource, CASES, to help new teachers make sense of

complex ideas about science teaching.

Dr. Reginald DesRoches, Assistant Professor at the Georgia

Institute of Technology, is conducting exceptional research in

the use of "smart" materials, such as shape memory alloy

technology for civil infrastructures to make them more seismic

resistant and better able to dissipate energy in the case of

earthquakes and other environmental exposure.  His integrated

education activities include hands-on research in civil

engineering and international and industrial participation.

Dr. Douglas John Emlen, Assistant Professor at the University of

Montana, leads an area of research that integrates developmental

biology, behavior, genetics and evolution to clarify a

fundamental biological question about how developmental and

physiological constraints affect the evolution of extreme shapes

in animals.  Emlen also develops wide-ranging research

experiences and courses in evolution for undergraduate students.

Dr. Michael C. Fitzgerald, Assistant Professor at Duke

University, is researching molecular interactions that drive

protein folding processes.  He is developing a new mass

spectrometry-based method to examine proteins that is expected to

lead to more dramatic results in the study of complex binding

interactions between multiple proteins and DNA.  His well-thought

out plan to provide summer workshops for high school science

teachers has received support from many area school principals.

Dr. Charles Forbes Gammie, Assistant Professor at the University

of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, is a leading young researcher in

astrophysics whose work is focused on building computer codes

able to calculate the energy released when hot gas is pulled

around black holes, which may eventually explain the enormous but

unexplained energy of quasars.  His "digital demo room,"

developed for undergraduate students, provides multi-level

knowledge of numerical modeling in stellar evolution, supernovae

and galactic structure.

Dr. Javier Garcia-Frias, Assistant Professor at the University of

Delaware, is doing advanced research on iterative decoding

techniques applied to communication channels with memory -- such

as wireless -- that have potential to greatly benefit

communications systems design, requiring a lessening of power

requirements for transmitters and better use of available

bandwith.  His organized research experiences for advanced

undergraduates, and his modernization of graduate course

offerings, is attracting more students into electrical

engineering and information sciences.

Dr. Richard Brent Gillespie, Assistant Professor at the

University of Michigan, is doing groundbreaking research on

haptic (touch exploration) devices that emulate the ability of

humans to feel texture and other properties of objects.  His work

has potential for automated modeling of virtual tools,

instruments and medical remote surgery techniques.  He promotes

expertise in his field by developing undergraduate and graduate

courses with hands-on tools for teaching system dynamics and

human-machine interaction.

Dr. Satyandra Kumar Gupta, Assistant Professor at the University

of Maryland in College Park, is a leader in research that is

influencing the future development of computer -aided design and

manufacturing (CAD/CAM) systems for multi-piece molds that will

allow for many new product-based developments.   His outreach to

introduce high school students to CAD/CAM techniques, and his

college-level curriculum that includes the study of geometric

reasoning algorithms for mechanical engineering students is

expected to expand this specific field to a new generation of

engineers.

Dr. C. Allan Guymon, Assistant Professor at the University of

Southern Mississippi, is contributing outstanding research in

photopolymer kinetics to predict and control the nanostructure of

liquid crystalline systems, creating new possibilities for the

polymer industry.  He is bringing polymer science concepts to

rural public high schools, especially to areas where there are

large numbers of underrepresented students, incorporating a

modified teaching module for introductory chemistry courses at

community colleges and universities.

Dr. Sheena Sethi Iyengar, Assistant Professor at Columbia

University, is undertaking groundbreaking behavioral research

studies on individual limits of choice as they affect intrinsic

motivation.  Her work is helping lead to a better understanding

of how cultural, individual, and situational dimensions of human

decision-making can be used to improve people's lives.  Through

seminars and educational outreach, Iyengar teaches consumers how

to manage everyday decisions, and coaches corporate leaders on

developing innovative and feasible business plans.

Dr. Veena Misra, Assistant Professor at North Carolina State

University, is conducting noteworthy research to advance the

development of nanoscale electronic devices in an innovative

vertical format, decreasing the size and increasing the power and

efficiency of the next generation of silicon-based components.

She is developing an electrical engineering course on vertical

devices, instructional videotape for high school students, and a

"nano-chip kit" for middle school students to introduce them to

nanotechnology concepts.

Dr. Christine Ortiz, Assistant Professor at the Massachusetts

Institute of Technology, is conducting creative materials

research studies on nanoscale properties of polymers inspired

from nature that are bridging the physical and biological

sciences, thus meeting the needs of new research priority areas

in nanotechnology and biomaterials.   Her innovative outreach

activities include reaching high school teachers with a special

course on nano- and biomaterials, and creating interdisciplinary

undergraduate courses in biomaterials.

Dr. Mona Singh, Assistant Professor at Princeton University, has

introduced advanced computational approaches to the prediction of

protein function and interaction at the genomic level that will

have impact in unraveling information about human and other

genomes.  Through her own experience in computer science and

structural biology, she has pioneered interdisciplinary courses

at both introductory and graduate levels in the growing field of

bioinformatics, the method by which computers are used to

synthesize vast quantities of raw biological data.

Linda K. Weavers, Assistant Professor at Ohio State University,

is conducting rigorous research on advanced oxidation processes,

especially on the kinetics and destruction mechanisms of a wide

range of pollutants, which is expected to have value in the

destruction of chemical warfare agents.  Her mentoring programs

for pre-high school and pre-college girls, through her workshops,

help students explore real world facets of engineering, and are

expected to increase enrollments and retention of women in

engineering.

Erik Winfree, Assistant Professor at the California Institute of

Technology, is leading research in DNA computing, which he is

redefining by building the foundations of a new biomolecular

computer, the applications of which will be most felt in

nanotechnology, and also in physics by shedding new light on the

formation of quasi-crystals and the controlled polymerization of

biomolecules.  Educationally, he is recognized for creating a

first-of-its-kind course on synthetic and natural biomolecular

computation, and for his highly distinguished teaching skills.

Dr. Jorge Gabriel Zornberg, Assistant Professor at the University

of Colorado at Boulder, is a leader in exploring new designs of

efficient covers for landfills and hazardous waste sites in semi

arid climates, using a highly integrated approach of theoretical

studies, laboratory and field testing, and numerical and physical

modeling.  Zornberg is deeply involved in sharing his knowledge

with high schools, undergraduate and continuing education

students, and internationally through collaboration with a

Brazilian university.

For more information, see:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/06/20020626-3.html

For more information on CAREER and PECASE, see:

http://www.nsf.gov/home/crssprgm/career/start.htm

or

http://www.nsf.gov/home/crssprgm/pecase/start.htm