Two UF engineering professors win prestigious $1 million awards

July 13, 2009

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Two University of Florida engineering researchers are among 100 recipients of the nation’s most prestigious awards for outstanding young scientists and engineers.

David Arnold, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, and Jacob Jones, assistant professor of materials science and engineering, have received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, or PECASE, award.

Each award comes with a five-year, $1 million research grant.

“I am thrilled that Dr. Arnold and Dr. Jones have been selected to receive PECASE awards. Their selection says a lot about the quality of their research and anticipated contributions to their fields,” said Cammy Abernathy, whose tenure as dean of the College of Engineering begins on Friday.

Outgoing engineering Dean Pramod Khargonekar said, “These awards also reflect well on the quality of our junior faculty hires over the last few years and are a further confirmation of the strength, vitality, and relevance of research programs in the College of Engineering.”

The White House describes the award as the highest honor young researchers can receive in the early part of their careers.

“These extraordinarily gifted young scientists and engineers represent the best in our country,” President Obama said in a White House press release. “With their talent, creativity and dedication, I am confident that they will lead their fields in new breakthroughs and discoveries and help us use science and technology to lift up our nation and our world.”

Nine federal departments and agencies support the awards, each of which comes with a five-year $1 million research grant.

Arnold came to UF in 2005 from the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he was a postdoctoral fellow in the school of electrical and computer engineering. He earned his doctorate from Georgia Tech in 2004.

His project, nominated by the Department of Defense’s Army Research Office, is titled “Development of Fully Integrated Micromagnetic Actuator Technologies.”

The goal is find new and better ways to easily make and use “magnetic microsystems” – tiny devices that can act as switches, pumps, valves or perform other functions – for industrial, medical, military and consumer products. Applications, for example, may include small surveillance airplanes known as micro air vehicles, tiny robots for medical or surgical applications, and electronic devices for mobile phones.

“Our newfound ability for making tiny magnets opens a new world of opportunities. We hope to build ‘mechanized microchips’ to support emerging high-tech concepts in a variety of scientific disciplines,” Arnold said.

Jones came to UF in 2006 from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, and Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, where he had been serving as a National Science Foundation International Research Fellow. He received his doctorate in 2004 from Purdue University.

Also nominated by the Army Research Office, Jones’ project is titled “Domain Wall Evolution in Phase Transforming Oxides.”

Jones said his project focuses on smart materials. In this case, that refers to materials that can convert energy from one form into another form – for example, sound into electricity, or vice versa. Such materials are key for advanced military applications in reconnaissance, navigation, surveillance and in guidance systems, he said.

He said his work addresses a fundamental feature of smart materials known as the domain wall, which refers to a break in the atomic periodicity of the material, with the goal of improving overall smart material systems.

“We are looking at how these domain walls influence the macroscopic properties of these materials and investigating how we can put them into unique positions and states that can enhance the properties of smart materials.”