NSF Career Award Recipients
In Their Own Words
Three Michigan Tech faculty members were honored in 2007 with National Science Foundation CAREER Awards. According to NSF, it is their "most prestigious award" to support "those teacher-scholars who most effectively integrate research and education within the context of the mission of their organization."
We thought we would let them discuss the award, and their teaching and research, in their own words.
Chunxiao Chigan
Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering
On her research: "My CAREER award is for research on communications for vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs). My development of VANETs will enhance traffic safety and traffic operation by addressing several challenges in access technology, dynamic power control, robust multi-hop communication, and the balance of security and privacy provisioning."
On the award: "To me, receiving an NSF CAREER award means a high academic recognition of our research and a strong affirmation of the potential technical and social impact of our research thrust. It further strengthens my lifetime commitment to strive to be an excellent researcher, teacher, mentor, and scholar."
Ranjit Pati
Assistant Professor, Physics
On students’ involvement and outreach: "The NSF award supports two graduate students and several undergraduate students. Furthermore, it provides us the opportunity for outreach. Currently we are developing a layperson’s version of molecular nanotechnology—an animated presentation for high school students."
On the award: "This is one of the most important achievements in my career thus far. Considering the level of competition each year at NSF, I am really honored to receive this award. One of the major objectives of this research is to design a single molecular transistor, which would sustain computing power growth beyond the year 2020. I am glad that the support from NSF will help us continue working towards this goal."
Zhenlin Wang
Assistant Professor, Computer Science
On his teaching: "We want to give students the freedom to be creative. Always, in the first class, I tell my students that, if my office door is open, you are welcome to stop by to talk about this class, talk about research, talk about your career."
On his research: "The modern compiler and computer architecture design largely relies on program locality, a property that makes memory systems work. My research will bring a new view to this and open a path for new compiler and architectural schemes for program optimization."
On the award: "The NSF CAREER award means acknowledgment from the academic society, encouragement from my colleagues, and my continued commitment to excellence in research and teaching."