2021 University Research Award recipients

Five Materials Science Program faculty among the recipients of this year's University Research Awards.

The University Research Awards (URA) provide “seed” grants for promising, high-risk projects, says Robert Clark, provost and senior vice president for research. The fund has been increased from $500,000 annually to $1 million with half of the funding coming from the President’s Fund, and the rest being matched by the various schools whose faculty members are recipients.

Recipients must demonstrate that their projects favor new research with a high probability of being leveraged by future external funding. This year’s Materials Science Program recipients, and their projects, are:

• Niaz Abdolrahim, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, Chenliang Xu, assistant professor of computer science
  Capturing nanoscale lattice variations by applying AI-powered computer vision techniques on synthetic x-ray diffraction data
• Ignacio Franco, associate professor of chemistry and assistant professor of physics, Todd Krauss, professor of chemistry and optics
  Molecules for Quantum Technologies: Tackling the Decoherence Challenge
• Pengfei Huo, assistant professor of chemistry; Todd Krauss, professor of chemistry and optics; Nick Vamivakas, professor of quantum optics and quantum physics
  Investigating Polariton Mediated Electron Transfer Reactions
• Anne Meyer, associate professor of biology, Danielle Benoit, professor of biomedical engineering and chemical engineering; Jin Xiao, associate professor of dentistry.
  Biofilm-on-a-chip: Development of a microphysiological platform to revolutionize treatment paradigms (to achieve durable treatments for dental caries.)
• Andrea Pickel, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, Nick Vamivakas, professor of quantum optics and quantum physics
  Probing Nanoscale Thermal Transport with Optically Levitated Nanodiamonds