For their research and teaching achievements, two engineering professors received a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) at a ceremony Dec. 19 at the White House.
Anna Michalak is an assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering; and the Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences.
Max Shtein is an assistant professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering; Department of Macromolecular Science and Engineering; and Department of Chemical Engineering. Shtein also is an assistant professor in the School of Art & Design.
They are two of 67 researchers from across the nation to receive the award from the U.S. Office of Science and Technology Policy. It is the highest honor the federal government gives to early-career scientists and engineers.
Michalak, one of three recipients nominated by NASA, is honored for developing innovative geostatistical modeling tools to study carbon cycling and global distribution of carbon dioxide, as well as for outstanding contributions to science education.
Her work is helping to map the sources and uptakes of carbon dioxide across the globe. She has grants from NASA totaling more than $1.6 million to study the fluctuations of atmospheric CO2 both globally and over North America. Her research uses these fluctuations to better understand how, where and why plants and oceans are taking carbon out of the atmosphere.
“This is an incredible honor,” Michalak says of her award. “I also have to add that much of the research on which this award is based was conducted by my graduate students and postdocs, and they therefore deserve at least as much credit as I do.”
Shtein is one of 15 nominated by the Department of Defense. He is honored for developing novel ways to make the next-generation of energy-efficient lighting devices, displays and solar cells. His mentoring of underrepresented minority students at the high school, undergraduate and graduate levels also is noted in the award citation.
Shtein made key contributions in developing commercially viable techniques for manufacturing organic light-emitting diodes, transistors and solar cells, which hold tremendous promise for efficient and cost-effective energy and lighting, among other applications. The techniques he helped to develop include organic vapor phase deposition and organic vapor jet printing.
At U-M Shtein has focused on developing novel kinds of devices such as multifunctional textiles for energy harvesting, lighting and sensing, and on understanding the fundamental physical properties of organic semiconductor materials and organic-inorganic interfaces.
“I’m very surprised and very honored to receive this award,” Shtein says. “It is a carrot and a stick at once. I feel positive pressure from the award to think better and work harder.” Shtein also shares credit with the graduate students who have worked in his lab.
