Carnegie Mellon Researcher Wins Prestigious Career Award From National Science Foundation

February 28, 2007
Contact: Chriss Swaney
(412) 268-5776

PITTSBURGH—Carnegie Mellon University’s Mohammad F. Islam has received the National Science Foundation’s most prestigious award for new faculty members, the Faculty Early Career Development award.

Islam, an assistant professor of chemical engineering and materials science and engineering at Carnegie Mellon, will receive the five year $500,000 grant to investigate how building blocks like atoms and molecules are organized in certain crystals and alloys.

For example, diamonds and graphite are made out of the same atoms but they have completely different properties because of the way they are organized, according to Islam.

However, it is very difficult to study how these atoms and molecules assemble themselves into single crystals or alloys because they are too small to be seen. So, Islam will use spherical colloids made of temperature-sensitive plastics to create single crystals and alloys for his research. The micrometer size will allow him to use an optical microscope to see and follow their movements during assembly. In addition, the size of the colloids can be changed by heating them.

“We will be able to study how phase transition like melting or freezing happens in alloys using these colloids,’’ Islam said. “Understanding how these particles assemble into crystalline structures or undergo melting or freezing can impact how certain materials are designed.’’ Those new novel designs will have diverse applications for drug delivery, biochemical sensors and photonics for use in the biomedical and defense industry sectors.

Islam also said the physics of phase transitions is difficult for undergraduate and high school students to understand. He hopes that his very visual and interactive experiments will make learning these concepts easier.

About Carnegie Mellon: Carnegie Mellon is a private research university with a distinctive mix of programs in engineering, computer science, robotics, business, public policy, fine arts and the humanities. More than 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students receive an education characterized by its focus on creating and implementing solutions for real problems, interdisciplinary collaboration, and innovation. A small student-to-faculty ratio provides an opportunity for close interaction between students and professors. While technology is pervasive on its 144-acre campus, Carnegie Mellon is also distinctive among leading research universities for the world-renowned programs in its College of Fine Arts. For more, see www.cmu.edu.