Mid-Career Researcher Award

Mid-Career Researcher Award Recipients

• Xiangfeng Duan, University of California, Los Angeles (2020)
  “for contributions to rational design and assembly of layered materials for electronic, photonic and energy devices”
  
  Xiangfeng Duan received his BS degree from University of Science and Technology of China in 1997, and PhD degree from Harvard University in 2002. He was a Founding Scientist and then Manager of Advanced Technology at Nanosys Inc., a nanotechnology startup founded based partly on his doctoral research. Duan joined UCLA with a Howard Reiss Career Development Chair in 2008, and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2012 and Full Professor in 2013. His research interest includes nanoscale materials, devices and their applications in future electronic and energy technologies. Duan has published over 250 papers with over 60,000 citations, and holds 45 issued US patents. He has received many awards for his pioneering research in nanoscale science and technology, including MIT Technology Review Top-100 Innovator Award, NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, NSF Career Award, Alpha Chi Sigma Glen T. Seaborg Award, Herbert Newby McCoy Research Award, US Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), ONR Young Investigator Award, DOE Early Career Scientist Award, Human Frontier Science Program Young Investigator Award, Dupont Young Professor, Journal of Materials Chemistry Lectureship, International Union of Materials Research Society and Singapore Materials Research Society Young Researcher Award, the Beilby Medal and Prize, the Nano Korea Award, International Society of Electrochemistry Zhao-Wu Tian Prize for Energy Electrochemistry, Science China Material Innovation Award and AIP Horizons Lectureship. He is currently an elected Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry and Fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science.
  
  
  
• Hongyou Fan, Sandia National Laboratories and The University of New Mexico (2019)
  “for outstanding contributions in nanoparticle self-assembly of functional nanomaterials and for leadership within the materials community"
  
  
  Hongyou Fan is a Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff at Sandia National Laboratories and is a National Laboratory Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at The University of New Mexico. He received a BS degree in chemistry from Jilin University in 1990, an MS degree in polymer science from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1995, and a PhD degree in chemical engineering from The University of New Mexico in 2000. He was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Sandia National Laboratories before working there full-time. His research focuses on functional nanomaterials synthesis, assembly and integration for nanoelectronic and nanophotonic applications. Fan is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the Materials Research Society (MRS). Prior to the MRS Mid-Career Researcher Award, he received the MRS Fred Kavli Distinguished Lectureship Award in Nanoscience, four R&D 100 Awards for the development of technically significant products, two Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer–Outstanding Technology Development Awards, The University of New Mexico Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award, and the Asian American Engineer of the Year Award.
  
  Hongyou talks about his work in this interview from MRS TV.
  
  
  
• David Mooney, Harvard University (2018)
  "for pioneering contributions to the field of biomaterials, especially in the incorporation of biological design principles into materials and the use of biomaterials in mechanobiology, tissue engineering and therapeutics"
  
  

  David Mooney is the Pinkas Family Professor of Bioengineering in the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and a Core Faculty Member of the Wyss Institute. His laboratory designs biomaterials to make cell and protein therapies effective and practical approaches to treat disease. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Medicine, and the National Academy of Inventors. He has won numerous awards, including the Clemson Award from the Society for Biomaterials (SFB), MERIT award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Distinguished Scientist Award from the International Association for Dental Research (IADR), Phi Beta Kappa Prize for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, and the Everett Mendelsohn Excellence in Mentoring Award from Harvard College. Mooney's inventions have been licensed by numerous companies, leading to commercialized products, and he is active on industrial scientific advisory boards.

   

  Mooney talks about his research in this interview from MRS TV.
  
  
• Nicola Spaldin, ETH Zürich (2017)
  "for creating a new theoretical framework describing multiferroics and for service to the materials community"
  
  

  Nicola Spaldin is a professor of materials theory at ETH Zürich. Following undergraduate studies in her native England, she received her PhD degree in chemistry at the University of California (UC), Berkeley, and was a postdoctoral researcher in applied physics at Yale University before starting her independent career in the Materials Department at UC Santa Barbara. Spaldin is best known scientifically for her development of the class of materials known as multiferroics, which combine simultaneous ferromagnetism and ferroelectricity, and for exploring their application in areas ranging from device physics to cosmology. She is a passionate science educator, director of her department's study program, and holder of the ETH Golden Owl Award for Excellence in Teaching. When not trying to make a room-temperature superconductor she can be found playing her clarinet, skiing or climbing in the Alps.

   

   
  
  
• Hongjie Dai, Stanford University (2016)

  “For seminal contributions to carbon-based nanoscience and applications in nanoelectronics, renewable energy, and biological systems."

  Hongjie Dai is the J.G. Jackson and C.J. Wood Professor of Chemistry at Stanford University. Dai has made fundamental contributions to carbon-based nanoscience. He developed chemical vapor deposition for carbon nanotubes, invented the first electrical nanosensors using nanotube transistors; advanced nanotube transistors to the ballistic limit, pioneered nanocarbon biological applications and developed new electrocatalysts and the aluminum-ion battery. Dai received a B.S. degree in physics from Tsinghua University in 1989 and a Ph.D. degree in applied physics from Harvard University in 1994. Prior to the MRS Mid-Career Award, Dai received an honorary chair professorship from the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was awarded the APS James McGroddy Prize for New Materials, the  Julius Springer Prize for Applied Physics, the  Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, the ACS Pure Chemistry Award, and the Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow and Packard Fellowship.

  
  
• Seth Marder, Georgia Institute of Technology (2015)

  “For establishing fundamental relationships between the chemical structure of organic molecules and their optical and electronic properties, thereby profoundly impacting how the scientific community designs optimized molecular structures for use in nonlinear optical applications."

  Seth R. Marder is the Georgia Power Chair of Energy Efficiency and Regents’ Professor of Chemistry and professor of materials science and engineering (courtesy) at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He has published over 400 peer-reviewed papers with over 28,500 citations, and has edited several proceedings and books. Among his recognitions and awards, Marder was the 1993 recipient of the NASA, Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Lew Allen Award for outstanding research by a scientist in the early part of his career, a recipient of an NSF Special Creativity Award, the ACS Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award, and Georgia Tech Outstanding Faculty Research Author. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Optical Society of America, SPIE, the Royal Society of Chemistry, the American Physical Society and the Materials Research Society. Among his advisory roles he was the Chair of the Materials and Chemistry Subcommittee of the Department of Commerce’s Emerging Technologies and Research Advisory Committee. He holds over 30 patents, many of which have been licensed and form the basis for three start-up companies he co-founded, two of which have been sold to Fortune 500 companies.

  At the 2015 MRS Spring Meeting, Marder delivered an award talk entitled "The Design of Organic Molecules and Materials for Nonlinear Optical Applications."

  
  
• Lei Jiang, Chinese Academy of Sciences (2014)

  “For establishing fundamental understanding of the interfacial properties of biological systems and transforming that insight into commercialized bioinspired materials with properties better than those of natural systems”

  Lei Jiang received his B.S. degree in physics in 1987, and an M.S. degree in chemistry in 1990 from Jilin University. From 1992 to 1994, he studied at Tokyo University as a China-Japan joint course Ph.D. student and received a Ph.D. in 1994 from Jilin University. He then worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Tokyo University. In 1996, he was a senior researcher at the Kanagawa Academy of Sciences and Technology. In 1999, Jiang joined the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) as a professor where he presently serves. In 2008, he set up the School of Chemistry and Environment at Beihang University and also served there as dean. He was elected an academician of the CAS in 2009 and The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) in 2012. In 2010, he held the honor of Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. Jiang also serves as a co-chairman of small and various editorial advisory boards that include Advanced Functional Materials, Advanced Materials Interfaces, Soft Matter, NPG Asia Materials, Biomicrofluidics, Nano Research, Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry and Materials Research Innovations. He received many awards, including the TWAS Chemistry Award in 2011 and the Heliang-Heli Prize in 2013.

  Jiang's scientific interest focuses on bio-inspired interfacial materials with super-wettability. He has published two books, three book chapters and more than 400 SCI journal articles, which include publications in Nature (2), Nature Nanotechnology (1), Nature Materials (1), Nature Communications (2), Chemical Society Reviews (5), Accounts of Chemical Research (4), Angewandte Chemie International Edition (25), Journal of the American Chemical Society (22), and Advanced Materials (65). His work has been cited more than 23,000 times; the H index is over 70. Jiang is focused on transferring research findings in the laboratory to practical products in the market. He holds 40 granted patents, 56 pending patent applications, and co-founded three technology companies.

  At the 2014 MRS Spring Meeting, Jiang delivered an award talk entitled "Bio-inspired Interfacial Materials with Super-Wettability."
  

  
  
• John A. Rogers, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2013)

  “For fundamental and applied contributions to materials, mechanics designs, and assembly techniques for stretchable/flexible electronic systems”

  John A. Rogers obtained B.A. and B.S. degrees in chemistry and in physics from the University of Texas at Austin in 1989. From MIT, he received SM degrees in physics and in chemistry in 1992 and a Ph.D. in physical chemistry in 1995. From 1995 to 1997, Rogers was a junior fellow in the Harvard University Society of Fellows. He joined Bell Laboratories as a member of the technical staff in the Condensed Matter Physics Research Department in 1997 and served as director of this department from the end of 2000 to 2002. Rogers is currently Swanlund Chair Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a primary appointment in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. He serves as director of the Seitz Materials Research Laboratory.

  Rogers’ research includes fundamental and applied aspects of materials and patterning techniques for unusual electronic and photonic devices, with an emphasis on bio-integrated and bio-inspired systems. He has published nearly 400 papers and is inventor on over 80 patents, more than 50 of which are licensed or in active use. Rogers is a fellow of the MRS, IEEE, APS and AAAS, and he is a member of the National Academy of Engineering. His research has been recognized with many awards, including a MacArthur Fellowship in 2009 and the Lemelson-MIT Prize in 2011.

  At the 2013 MRS Spring Meeting, Rogers delivered an award talk entitled "Materials for Electronics That Can Stretch, Twist, Fold and Flex."

  
  
• Kristi S. Anseth, University of Colorado Boulder (2012)

  "Exceptional achievement at the interface of materials and biology enabling new, functional biomaterials that answer fundamental questions in biology and yield advances in regenerative medicine, stem-cell differentiation, and cancer treatment.”
  
  Kristi S. Anseth of the University of Colorado, Boulder, was recognized during the award presentations at the 2012 MRS Spring Meeting. She is Tisone Professor, Associate Professor of Surgery, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.
  
  The Mid-Career Researcher Award, endowed by Aldrich Materials Science, recognizes exceptional achievements in materials research by mid-career professionals. Anseth is a leading researcher and inventor in the fields of biomaterials and regenerative medicine. She has shown how control of the chemical, biological, and physical properties of biomaterials enables one to probe fundamental cell biology questions and use this information in targeted applications in tissue regeneration. Her approach is unique in that she combines the ability to synthesize polymers with highly defined structures with an understanding of the molecular dynamics of processes at the cell-biomaterial interface. Her seminal work on the mechanisms of how extracellular cues are transmitted through cells, and her innovative approaches for biomolecule presentation, have revolutionized the field.
  
  Anseth is widely recognized for blending modern molecular and cellular biology with engineering and quantitative methods to generate the next generation of biomaterials for cell culture, delivery, and tissue regeneration. Most recently, Anseth has focused on creating new biofunctionalized hydrogel materials using click chemistry. She has applied novel hydrogels to engineer stem-cell differentiation, craniofacial regeneration, pancreatic cell encapsulation, modulation of inflammation, protein delivery, and heart-valve repair. She has demonstrated how photodegradable gels that allow real-time manipulation of materials properties or chemistry can provide dynamic environments to answer fundamental questions about materials regulation of live cell function. This ability can affect an array of applications from design of drug delivery vehicles to tissue engineering systems.
  
  Anseth’s contributions have been translated into a number of medical products, and she has started two startup companies on biomaterials and tissue engineering. Following her research fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Anseth joined the University of Colorado in 1996. Among her many honors are the election to the National Academy of Engineering and to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, selection as the first engineer to become a Howard Hughes Investigator, and recognition by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers as “one of the 100 engineers of the modern era.” Anseth is a Fellow of MRS; she received the MRS Outstanding Young Investigator award; and she has served the Society as a member of the Board of Directors, chair of the Planning Committee, and co-chair of the 2009 MRS Fall Meeting. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Colorado in 1994. Anseth holds 17 patents and has published over 220 papers.

  At the 2012 MRS Spring Meeting, Anseth presented "Materials Scaffolds to Study Cell Biology in Four Dimensions."