Seventeen Early Career Grants Given to Promising New Faculty Members
WILMINGTON, Del., June 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- DuPont today
recognized 17 young professors from universities in the United States, China,
Spain and India with the annual DuPont Young Professor grant. The grants
recognize original research in chemistry, biofuels, miniaturization
applications for electronics and medicine, structure and function of proteins,
nanocomposites, studies in earth science and climate change. The DuPont
program, which began in 1967, is designed to provide start-up assistance to
promising young and untenured research faculty working in areas of interest to
DuPont's long-term business.
Each young professor will receive a three-year grant for $25,000 or its
equivalent in relevant currency. The grants may be used to obtain matching
funds through the National Science Foundation or other organizations.
'The DuPont Young Professor grant program is a way for DuPont to identify
promising researchers and promising science early in a new professor's
career,' said Uma Chowdhry, DuPont senior vice president and chief science and
technology officer. 'It also is an excellent way for the company to create
lasting relationships with future academic scientists who can provide the
company with unique perspectives on technological challenges, further aiding
our R&D process.
The program is significant, not only for the diversity of people,
universities and studies represented, but also because it has reached out to
the academic community for more than four decades, making it one of the most
sustainable programs for academic support in the United States, Chowdhry
noted.
Professors are nominated by a member of the DuPont technical staff who
agrees to serve as the liaison between the company and the faculty member.
The DuPont Fellows Forum, which includes the company's top scientists, selects
the award winners each year. Each grant recipient is invited to present a
seminar on his or her work to the DuPont research community.
The DuPont Young Professor's Class of 2008 includes professors from the
University of Delaware; Johns Hopkins University; University of Michigan; the
University of Texas at Austin; Rochester University and, Cornell University in
New York; Colorado School of Mines; Massachusetts Institute of Technology;
Duke University; University of North Carolina; Virginia Tech, and; two young
professors from the University of California at Berkeley. In addition, young
professors from the University of Oviedo in Spain, the Indian Institute of
Technology (Mumbia), India, and Nanjiing University and the Institute of
Genetics and Developmental Biology in China received grants.
Since the inception of the award 41 years ago, more than 520 young
professors from the United States, Europe, Asia, South America, Canada and
Africa have received nearly $45 million in grants. Many past award recipients
have gone on to gain significant recognition in their chosen field from their
scientific peers and colleagues.
This year, awards were made to the following promising young faculty:
-- Maciek Antoniewicz for engineering microbial cells for biofuels
production, University of Delaware, Newark, Del.;
-- Cao XiaoFeng for methylation of histone and other amino acids to
improve rice production in China and India, Institute of Genetics and
Developmental Biology, Beijing;
-- David Gracias for miniaturization in electronics and medicine, Johns
Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md.;
-- You Lingchong for reprogramming cellular behavior with synthetic gene
circuits, Duke University, Chapel Hill, N.C.;
-- Suljo Linic for direct conversion of bio-fuel chemical energy into
electricity, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich.;
-- Jeremy Meyers for transport properties in ionomeric fuel cell
membranes, University of Texas, Austin, Tex.;
-- Bradley Nilsson for study of proteins, University of Rochester,
Rochester, N.Y.;
-- Zhang Y.H. Percival for enzymes, catalysis and biocatalysis, Virginia
Tech, Blacksburg, Va.;
-- Richmond Sarpong for complex natural products and synthetic analogs,
University of California at Berkeley, Calif.;
-- Frank Schroeder for response of cellular systems to bioactive small
molecules, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.;
-- Heather Stoll for studies of climate change, University of Oviedo,
Oviedo, Spain;
-- Amadeau Sum for biological systems, with emphasis on molecular
descriptions to understand macroscopic properties and behavior, Colorado
School of Mines, Golden, Colo.;
-- Papanasamurthy Sunthar for microfluidic drug encapsulation in vesicles,
Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, India;
-- Krystyn Van Vliet for materials science, biomaterials, nanocomposites,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, Mass.;
-- Wang Qin for studies in earth science, Nanjing University, Nanjing,
China;
-- Xu Ting for hierarchical assembly of supramolecules and nanoparticles,
University of California at Berkeley, Calif.;
-- You Wei for organic volatiles, University of North Carolina, Raleigh-
Durham, N.C.
DuPont (NYSE: DD) is a science-based products and services company.
Founded in 1802, DuPont puts science to work by creating sustainable solutions
essential to a better, safer, healthier life for people everywhere. Operating
in more than 70 countries, DuPont offers a wide range of innovative products
and services for markets including agriculture and food; building and
construction; communications; and transportation.
SOURCE DuPont