Eight University of Michigan researchers have received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor the U.S. government bestows on scientists and engineers beginning their independent research careers.
Amy Bohnert, Scott Hummel and Lewei Allison Lin of the Medical School; Danai Koutra, Ashwin Shahani, Kevin Field and Karin Jensen of the College of Engineering; and Liuyan Zhao of LSA are among nearly 400 researchers funded by federal agencies who were announced as PECASE winners by the White House.
PECASE awards acknowledge the contributions scientists and engineers have made to the advancement of science, technology, education and mathematics education, and to community service as demonstrated through scientific leadership, public education and community outreach.
This year’s honorees from U-M are:
Amy Bohnert, professor of anesthesiology and of psychiatry, and associate professor of epidemiology in the School of Public Health. She is co-director of the U-M Opioid Research Institute and of the Overdose Prevention Engagement Network. Her research focuses include epidemiology and brief interventions regarding chronic pain, opioid misuse, overdose, substance use and related disorders.
Kevin Field, associate professor of nuclear engineering and radiological sciences. He is best known for using advanced characterization methods and accelerated analysis techniques to understand radiation effects in materials for fission and fusion energy systems.
Scott Hummel, professor of internal medicine. He directs the program in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction at the Frankel Cardiovascular Center and is the section chief of cardiology at the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System. His research aims to improve quality of life and clinical outcomes in older adults with heart failure, with a particular focus on understanding the role of diet and nutrition.
Karin Jensen, assistant professor of biomedical engineering. Her work in engineering education research explores mental health and well-being, producing evidence-based guidance for supporting well-being and a positive, healthy culture more broadly. Her research focuses on undergraduate students, faculty mental health and well-being, and broadening participation in engineering.
Danai Koutra, associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science. She works to develop efficient and interpretable computational methods for discovering and summarizing unknown patterns in large, complex data. Her work leverages the inherent connections and dependencies in real-world data, which form networks or graphs, with practical applications in neuroscience, precision health, recommender systems and deep neural networks.
Lewei Allison Lin, associate professor of psychiatry, and a staff psychiatrist and research investigator at the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System. Her research on substance use disorders, including opioid overdose and treatment, has included work on the use of telehealth in addiction care. Her goal is to deliver high quality care to the 90% of people with substance use disorders not reached by traditional models of treatment.
Ashwin Shahani, associate professor of materials science and engineering. He uses X-ray imaging techniques to observe in 3D how solid materials behave under changing conditions in real time, which can help improve materials manufacturing. Shahani aims to determine the character and connectivity of microscopic boundaries within metals, providing one-of-a-kind insight to manufacturers to create novel microstructures optimized for specific uses or repair defects.
Liuyan Zhao, associate professor of physics. Her research focuses on understanding and, ultimately, harnessing emergent behaviors in quantum materials. Her group focuses on 3D and 2D materials with strong electron-electron interactions or strong spin-orbit coupling.
— Kate Barnes of the Office of the Vice President for Research, Noah Fromson of the Michigan Medicine Department of Communication, and Derek Smith and Katherine McAlpine of the College of Engineering contributed to this article.
