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National Science Foundation awards two chemistry researchers more than $1 million |
| By
Deanna Woolf |
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Feb 20, 2006 |
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The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded more than $1 million in funding to two UT professors as part of its early career development program, CAREER.
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| Huang, left, and Lind |
Dr. Cora Lind, assistant professor of chemistry, received $543,000 for her project, "Exploration of Negative Thermal Expansion Materials: From Basic Properties to Formation of Composites." Dr. Xuefei Huang, assistant professor of chemistry, received $525,000 for "Syntheses of Hyaluronan Oligosaccharides as Biological Probes."
"I am delighted that Professor Lind and Professor Huang are winners of the National Science Foundation's CAREER awards," said Dr. Frank Calzonetti, vice provost for research and associate vice president for economic development. "These awards, the most prestigious given by the NSF to support faculty members in the early stages of their professional careers, are highly competitive and indicate the high esteem that the NSF peer reviewers and program officials regard the UT plan to integrate high-quality, promising research with educational activities by UT faculty members.
“These awards demonstrate to the scientific community the increasing stature of the quality of The University of Toledo's research programs and are further evidence of the academic standing of the faculty in our department of chemistry," Calzonetti said.
Lind said she was surprised and happy to receive the grant. "This was my first submission ... I had not really believed this would go through on the first attempt," she said.
Her project involves materials that shrink — instead of expand — when heated. Her goals are to prepare and characterize new negative thermal expansion (NTE) materials, characterize their high-press behaviors, and to prepare NTE/polymer composites with specific properties.
Huang said, "This award is highly competitive, with a success rate of below 20 percent, with applicants from universities throughout the country. Winning this award affirms my efforts to excel in both research and education."
He will utilize the NSF grant to build a library of synthetic, contaminant-free hyaluronan oligosaccharides — molecules that play roles in tumor cell growth suppression, sensitization of multi-drug resistant cancer cells and immuno-stimulation.
Both researchers will involve graduate, undergraduate and high school students in their work. Huang also plans to organize outreach activities such as a chemistry open house and a Saturday morning science program.
Lind and Huang are the second and third members of the chemistry faculty doing CAREER-funded research. Dr. Tim Mueser, assistant professor of chemistry, received a grant in 2004 for "Structural Analysis of Branched DNA Recognition." Mueser's research focuses on how structure-specific recognition of branched DNA is accomplished at the atomic level.
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