May 11, 2006

Five Young UCSB Faculty Members Win National Science Foundation CAREER Awards

Gail Gallessich

Five young faculty members at the University of California, Santa Barbara have received prestigious CAREER awards from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program offers the National Science Foundation's most prestigious awards in support of the early career development activities of those teacher-scholars who are most likely to become the academic leaders of the 21st century.

The NSF explains that CAREER awardees are selected on the basis of creative proposals that effectively integrate research and education within the context of the mission of their organization. The plans are expected to build a firm foundation for a lifetime of integrated contributions to research and education.

The financial awards will be paid out over a five-year period. The winning faculty members and their projects follow:

·Jennifer Earl, assistant professor of sociology, will receive $404,999 to pursue a project entitled The Internet, Activism and Social Movements.

·Jeffrey Moehlis, assistant professor of mechanical and environmental engineering, will receive $400,000 to pursue a project entitled Dynamics of Individual and Coupled Oscillators.

·Chandra Krintz, assistant professor of computer science will receive $400,000 to pursue a project entitled, VIVA-Vertically Integrated Virtualization: Automatic, Full System, Specialization for High-Performance Computing.

·Ben Zhao, assistant professor of computer science, will receive $400,000 to pursue a project entitled GAIA: A Self-organizing, Self-healing Network Infrastructure.

·Thuc-Quyen Nguyen, assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry, will receive $511,278 to work on a project entitled Structure-Function-Property Relationships in Charged Conjugated Polymers.

The National Science Foundation promotes and advances scientific progress in the United States by competitively awarding grants and sponsoring cooperative agreements for research and education in the sciences, mathematics, and engineering.

About UC Santa Barbara

The University of California, Santa Barbara is a leading research institution that also provides a comprehensive liberal arts learning experience. Our academic community of faculty, students, and staff is characterized by a culture of interdisciplinary collaboration that is responsive to the needs of our multicultural and global society. All of this takes place within a living and learning environment like no other, as we draw inspiration from the beauty and resources of our extraordinary location at the edge of the Pacific Ocean.