Five faculty members at the 91探花 have been awarded early-career聽聽from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The new Sloan Fellows,聽聽Feb. 15, include聽, assistant professor of computer science and engineering; , assistant professor of clean energy and physics; , assistant professor of electrical engineering and physics; , assistant professor of astronomy; and , assistant professor of aquatic and fishery sciences.
Open to scholars in eight scientific and technical fields 鈥� chemistry, computer science, economics, mathematics, molecular biology, neuroscience, ocean sciences and physics 鈥� the fellowships honor those early-career researchers whose achievements mark them as the next generation of scientific leaders.
The 126聽聽were selected in close coordination with the research community. Candidates are nominated by their peers, and fellows are selected by independent panels of senior scholars based on each candidate鈥檚 research accomplishments, creativity and potential to become a leader in his or her field. Each fellow will receive $65,000 to apply toward research endeavors.
This year鈥檚 fellows come from 53 institutions across the United States and Canada, spanning fields from evolutionary biology to data science. The new Sloan Fellows at the 91探花reflect this diversity, probing complex questions in robotics, quantum physics and the formation of the galaxy.
Cakmak, for example, directs the , where she studies human-robot interactions, end-user programming and assistive robotics. She aims to develop robots that can be programmed and controlled by diverse users.
鈥淚t鈥檚 about packaging robot capabilities at the right level and creating the right interface for different users,鈥� said Cakmak.
Rather than aiming for a one-size-fits-all robot, Cakmak argues for customizing each robot to the unique needs, preferences and environments of users. Today, only expert roboticists can do that sort of customization. Cakmak aims to make robot programming accessible to a much wider audience. She believes this could be the key to mass adoption of robots and democratize 鈥渞obot programming鈥� jobs of the future.
Chu, of the , 聽focuses on the synthesis and characterization of materials with unconventional electronic and magnetic ground states, such as high-temperature superconductors and topological insulators. Simply put, Chu manufactures materials and measures their properties.
鈥淢y goal is to find more materials of this kind and study their properties to find why they come out this way, or if there are additional hidden properties that people don鈥檛 know about,鈥� said Chu.
The goal is to understand and control these emergent quantum behaviors and apply them to energy and information technology.
Majumdar, a researcher with the , is at the forefront of the interdisciplinary research that combines quantum materials and nanophotonics. His research attempts to store light in an optical resonator to study its tiniest components. Majumdar is setting out to build quantum systems using light that can mimic the interactions between electrons in many of today鈥檚 technologies. That would pave the way for new materials and optical nano-structures that could revolutionize computing. Developing these technologies, however, can be very difficult.
鈥淥ur plan is to engineer new materials and new optical nanostructures to make photons interact with each other, which is a key element for performing computation with light, be it quantum or classical computing,鈥� said Majumdar.
Werk is a kind of galaxy historian, studying matter on atomic scales to help understand how galaxies 鈥� and the universe as a whole 鈥� evolve. By aiming giant telescopes at the night鈥檚 sky, she uses spectrographs to study atoms billions of light years away. Werk looks at the distinction between subatomic particles that exist both outside and inside galaxies. The outcome, she hopes, will help elucidate a better understanding of our own cosmic origins.
鈥淲hen I look at the sky I see lots of different atomic transitions that I鈥檓 trying to piece together into a coherent picture,鈥� said Werk.
奥辞辞诲鈥檚 research explores the ecology of parasites and pathogens in a changing world. She is interested in how human impacts on ecosystems affect the transmission of parasites. 奥辞辞诲鈥檚 work has shown that disruption can alter what kinds of parasites are common and rare 鈥� increasing the abundance of some kinds of parasites and decreasing the abundance of others. The Sloan Fellowship will allow Wood and her team to look back in time at how parasite transmission changed as industrialization intensified human impacts on the oceans. She鈥檒l accomplish this by examining parasites preserved in museum specimens 鈥� mainly fish floating perennially in ethanol 鈥� including many that are more than a century old.
鈥淭hese fish are basically parasite time capsules,鈥� said Wood.
By developing time profiles of parasite abundance, Wood will provide the world鈥檚 first glimpse of what parasite communities might have been like in a more 鈥減ristine鈥� ocean.
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For more information, contact Jackson Holtz at the 91探花News Office at 206-543-2580 or聽jjholtz@uw.edu.