Faculty Grants & Awards

2008 Awards

• Prof. Denis Wirtz Awarded T-32 National Cancer Institute Training Grant for $1.6 million (expand)
  Prof. Denis Wirtz Awarded T-32 National Cancer Institute Training Grant for $1.6 million
  Professor Denis Wirtz has been awarded a $1.6 million T-32 National Cancer Institute training grant to recruit two outstanding postdoctoral trainees every year with MD and/or PhD degrees and diverse backgrounds in either biochemistry, physics, molecular/cellular/cancer biology, or an engineering/physics discipline. Postdoctoral fellows will conduct research in nanotechnology for cancer medicine. Please check the Website of the Institute for NanoBioTechnology in the coming weeks for more details on this exciting opportunity and information about how to apply. (collapse)
• Prof. Konstantopoulos awarded NIH-RO1 grant (June 2008) (expand)
  Prof. Konstantopoulos awarded NIH-RO1 grant
  
  Prof. Konstantopoulos was awarded a research grant in the amount of approximately 1.6 million dollars from the National Institutes of Health (NIAMS) to delineate shear-induced signaling networks in mammalian cells. (collapse)
• Sharon Gerecht receives Maryland Outstanding Young Engineer Award (May 2008) (expand)
  Sharon Gerecht receives Maryland Outstanding Young Engineer Award
  Gerecht is being recognized for her research in bioengineering stem cell systems for specific therapeutic applications. The differentiation and function of stem cells are greatly influenced by their microenvironment and Gerecht exploits modern microengineering techniques to alter these microenvironments to engineer stem cells that can be used to perform specific functions or tasks. The award is sponsored by the Maryland Academy of Sciences and conferred by the Maryland Science Center in the hopes of encouraging the important work of young scientists and engineers in the state of Maryland, and to increase public awareness of their accomplishments. It is given in recognition of the extraordinary contributions of Maryland engineers under the age of 35. (collapse)
• Professor Gracias awarded 2008 DuPont Young Professor Award (May 2008) (expand)
  Professor Gracias awarded 2008 DuPont Young Professor Award
  Gracias was selected as one of twelve recipients of the 2008 DuPont Young Professor Award. This 40 year old award at DuPont is meant to support young promising untenured faculty. Gracias will receive $75,000 over three years as a part of the DuPont award to support his group’s research on the understanding of electronic conduction at the interfaces of organic semiconductors and dielectrics within functional organic electronic devices such as organic field effect transistors. In the past few years Gracias has utilized non-linear optical spectroscopy to study molecular changes in organic transistors in-situ during transistor operation. The research theme in the Gracias group focuses on the science of miniaturization with applications in electronics and medicine and is also funded by the NSF, NIH, DOD, Beckman and Dreyfus Foundations. (collapse)
• Professor Denis Wirtz’s lab discovers how proteins control the process when bacteria multiply (April 2008) (Link to full article...)
• Joelle Frechette wins NSF Career Award (March 2008) (expand)
  Joelle Frechette wins NSF Career Award
  Congratulations to Assistant Professor Joelle Frechette who received a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award-the foundation's most prestigious award for new faculty members. Joelle’s CAREER program in materials design and surface engineering will support her research to harness interfacial phenomena and achieve external, reversible, and local control of wetting and adhesion properties between surfaces. Her award also supports the development of workshops created in conjunction with the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) for visually impaired students. (collapse)

2007 Awards

• Mike Betenbaugh and team awarded National Science Foundation EFRI grant (November 2007) (expand)
  Mike Betenbaugh and team awarded National Science Foundation Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innnovation (EFRI) grant
  Mike Betenbaugh heads a team of scientists on a National Science Foundation Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation award for a project entitled "An integrated computational and experimental model for biochemical and electrical interactions in ion channels and the impact of sialic acid on neuronal function". Dilip Asthagiri (co-PI) from Chemical Engineering and Allan Gottschalk (co-PI, Johns Hopkins Medical Institute) who lead the molecular scale to neuron scale modeling effort. Esperanze Recio-Pinto (co-PI, NYU), Karen Palter (co-PI, Temple University), and Mike Betenbaugh (PI) will lead the experimental effort starting from the level of the single ion-channels leading up to the functioning organism. This 2 million dollar award will sustain this effort for about four years. (link to full article) (collapse)
• Justin Hanes awarded an NSF grant to create a New Undergraduate Engineering Minor in Nanotechnology Risk Assessment and Public Policy (October 2007) (expand)
  Justin Hanes awarded an NSF grant to create a New Undergraduate Engineering Minor in Nanotechnology Risk Assessment and Public Policy (October 2007)
  This grant seeks funding to develop a new undergraduate engineering minor at Johns Hopkins, housed in the Institute for NanoBioTechnology (INBT), and involving: the Whiting School of Engineering, the Bloomberg School of Public Health, the Risk Sciences & Public Policy Institute, the Berman Institute for Bioethics, The Center for Law and the Public’s Health, and the Center for Educational Outreach. co-PIs are Jonathan Links (Environmental Health Sciences) and Edward Bouwer (Geography and Environmental Engineering). (collapse)
• David Gracias awarded the 2007 Maryland Young Engineer of the Year Award (May 2007)