Two professors from the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) will receive the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.
A total of 94 people across the country have been named for this award, which identifies and encourages leadership in the area of scientific technology and the various activities pursued by recipients to reach out to the community. Winners will receive the award at Washington DC on October 14.
From UCSB, Benjamin Mazin who is the assistant professor in the University’s Department of Physics and Sumita Pennathur, assistant professor of the mechanical engineering department have received the awards. Benjamin Mazin has been bestowed with the award for his exemplary contributions in developing low-temperature, ultra-sensitive detector arrays that provide the arrival timing and energy resolution for photons that travel from the X-ray to the infrared. Sumita Pennathur was presented the award in recognition of her exemplary research efforts in the areas of mechanical engineering and nanotechnology. Her studies have provided particular insight into interfacial science and nanofluidics and helped in developing new experimental and theoretical platforms that facilitate discoveries in the areas of kinetics, adsorption and protein transport.
While Bemjamin Mazin’s study has been sponsored by NASA, Sumita Pennathur’s research has been funded by the Research Office of the US Army, California NanoSystems and the Institute of Collaborative Biotechnologies from UCSB’s Department of Mechanical Engineering. The winners were nominated by fourteen agencies and departments.