Issue date: 4/4/08 Section: Campus

Three Northwestern assistant professors were honored by the National Science Foundation as outstanding junior faculty in recognition of their rising talent.

Steven Jacobsen, of the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, and Matthew Grayson and Aleksandar Kuzmanovic of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, will receive at least $400,000 apiece in funding for research projects over the next five years.

"It's a young and dynamic group of faculty that we've been able to successfully hire - the best, the brightest," said Bruce Wessels, who served as the chairman of the electrical engineering and computer science department when Grayson, one of the winners, was hired last year.

The National Science Foundation's CAREER awards, part of the Faculty Early Career Development program, acknowledge non-tenured assistant professors for their innovative research projects, education plans and integration of research findings into their classes, said Elizabeth VanderPutten, chairwoman of the CAREER Coordinating Committee.

Last year, 425 recipients were chosen, including three McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science faculty members, from 2,600 proposals. Awards are still being given this year, although about 300 have already been selected, VanderPutten said.

Award-winner Grayson has expertise and understanding of nanotechnology and quantum physics that is "important for the 21st century," Wessels said.

Grayson's research will examine and manipulate the quantum number of electrons under extremely low temperatures.

"The idea is in the long run, we're trying to push the limits of how much you can control in electronic devices and how far you can push your control of electrons," Grayson said.

Electronic devices currently rely on large numbers of electrons to function, but Grayson said he hopes his research will help create devices that use single electrons. It may also lead eventually to a new way of creating a quantum computer, he said.

Grayson will also promote "an unconventional outreach program" with plays about science hosted by McCormick. The goal is to create dialogue between various departments about science's relationship to society, he said.

Jacobsen will study the Earth's deep water cycle with his award money, and proposed tying in activities with local district elementary schools to close the gap in science achievement between students of different races. Kuzmanovic aims to build a system to monitor computer network practices in order to understand the behavior of Internet service providers and content delivery networks.

stephanie-wang@northwestern.edu

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