![Professor Kristin Yvonne Rozier](https://www.uc.edu/news/articles/legacy/enews/2016/04/e23205/jcr:content/image.img.cq5dam.thumbnail.500.500.jpg/1534434145053.jpg)
Engineering Researchers Receive Prestigious NSF CAREER Awards
University of Cincinnati College of Engineering and Applied Science Assistant Professors Kristin Yvonne Rozier and David Wendell have received the prestigious
(NSF) CAREER Award to further investigate
and
Engineering a Target Selective Biological Photocatalyst for Water Disinfection,
respectively.
The
Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program
is a Foundation-wide activity that offers the National Science Foundation's most prestigious awards in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations. Successful PIs propose creative, integrative and effective research and education plans, developed within the context of the mission, goals, and resources of their organizations, while building a firm foundation for a lifetime of contributions to research, education and their integration.
One must be an assistant professor in the United States at a qualifying institution in order to apply for the CAREER Award. The CAREER proposal is a submission from one single individual containing a very detailed plan for the next five years that will be the foundation of that person's career in academia. A maximum of three applications (in three different years) are allowed per person during their career.
Rozier, head of the UC Laboratory for Temporal Logic in Aerospace Engineering and recipient of the Inaugural Initiative-Inspiration-Impact Award from Women in Aerospace, joined the
College of Engineering and Applied Science (CEAS)
faculty of the
and
Departments as an assistant professor in spring 2015. Her primary research interests include design-time checking of system logic and system requirements; runtime system health management; and safety and security analysis.
Previous to joining UC, Rozier spent 14 years as a research scientist at NASA, holding civil service positions at NASA Ames Research Center (2008-2014) and NASA Langley Research Center (2001-2008). She earned her PhD in computer science from Rice University and MS and BS degrees from the College of William and Mary. During her tenure at NASA, Rozier contributed research to the Aeroacoustics, and Safety-Critial Avionics groups at NASA Langley and to the Robust Software Engineering, and Discovery and Systems Health groups in the Intelligent Systems Division at NASA Ames. She has also served on the NASA Formal Methods Symposium Steering Committee since working to found that conference in 2008.
Professor Rozier with Swift UAS
Most recently, Rozier was a primary contributing researcher to the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) Air Traffic Management project of the Airspace Systems Program at NASA.
Originally designed for manned aircraft because our current system cannot grow to meet the passenger demand while maintaining the current, provably high, level of safety, Rozier is working on verification of designs for a new, more automated air traffic control system for manned aircraft, as well as looking at the extra dimension of systems that would be extensible to UAS. Relative to this project,
Roziers CAREER Award research, Theoretical Foundations of the UAS in the NAS Problem,
will help to build a safer NAS with increased capacity for UAS and create broadly impactful capabilities for System Health Management (SHM) on-board UAS, thus ensuring the safety of people and property on the ground.
Rozier won the CAREER Award after applying for the first time this year, half a year after becoming eligible. Her CAREER project will have broader impact by developing an open-UAS design aimed at both serving as a research platform and enabling interactive teaching experiences for K-12, undergraduate, and graduate students. Other broader impacts include mentoring outreach specifically targeted at girls achieving in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects.
Professor David Wendell, PhD
When Wendell, assistant professor in the
CEAS Department of Biomedical, Chemical and Environmental Engineering
, first came to UC in 2009, he undertook a research program with a team of fellow UC scientists which resulted in the successful development of an
. He now heads the
with a primary focus on nanoscale biological engineering, with recent advancements in protein photocatalysts which convert light energy into reactive oxygen like hydrogen peroxide.
About three years ago, Wendell began working to create new forms of protein-based materials for water quality engineering, specifically related to disinfection.
provides the necessary support to inform a new, more compact protein photocatalyst capable of scalable production and broader implementation.
Wendell explains, Currently, antibiotics and common disinfectants kill a broad spectrum of microorganisms. However, many of these organisms are essential for personal health and the health of the environment. By engineering a selective disinfection agent, we can eliminate only the bugs we dont want, while keeping the ones we do. For example, you may want to eliminate a skin MRSA infection, but keep your skin microbiome intact, this is especially true for immunocompromised individuals. Similarly, you may want to eliminate water borne pathogens like Norovirus or Cryptosporidium, but preserve bacteria that are essential to water treatment processes.
One of the interesting things you can do with UC's protein photocatalyst (besides disinfect) is microscale photolithography, which may be valuable for future protein based sensors. The protein photocatalyst, called StrepMiniSog, is pictured here.
Wendell studied at Cornell University and University of California, Los Angeles. Wendells field of study is nanotechnology and his PhD focused on biomedical engineering. He received the
2010 Earth Award for his photosynthetic foam work
, which was presented by the King of Malaysia. Wendell has also been recognized by the American Chemical Society Breakthrough Science for his antibiotic capture material and he is the recipient of the 2016 CEAS Neil Wandmacher Teaching Award for Young Faculty. Additionally, many of the students he has mentored have gone on to become independent academic and professional scientists.
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