Two chemical engineering assistant professors earn NSF CAREER awards for research
Chemical Engineering
By Joe McAdory
Two assistant professors in the Department of Chemical Engineering, Jean-Francois Louf and Michael Howard, earned National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Awards for their respective research.
Louf received a three-year, $843,000 NSF grant for his study, “Mechanisms of Acoustic Signal Processing for Increased Nectar Sugar Concentration in Flowers,” which examines how plants translate mechanical vibrations into biochemical changes.
Howard’s project, “Multiscale modeling for self-assembly of colloidal-particle coatings with gradient compositions,” resulted in a five-year, $500,000 grant. In this study, Howard offers a computer-modeling approach to engineer the drying-induced assembly of colloidal-particle coatings, such as paint. This method could streamline production, saving time and reducing resource consumption.
Selen Cremaschi, chemical engineering department chair, praised her award-winning junior faculty members.
“We are incredibly proud of Drs. Louf and Howard for their award-winning, groundbreaking research, which exemplifies the innovative spirit of our faculty,” she said. “Dr. Howard’s work on computer modeling approaches to colloidal-particle coatings and Dr. Louf’s research on acoustic signal processing are remarkable contributions that can impact industry and society.”
Louf’s team is determined to understand how flowers detect and respond to the sound of pollinators — potentially increasing nectar sugar concentration and improving crop yields.
Declining bee populations have significantly reduced pollination, affecting both biodiversity and global food production. His research takes a novel approach to address the problem by using sound to stimulate plants and enhance their ability to attract pollinators.
His team will study how plant cell walls and membranes respond to sound waves using advanced techniques to observe cell vibrations, track sugar movement, visualize sugar metabolism and examine molecule movement.
“If we can understand how plants respond to specific acoustic frequencies, we could develop new agricultural techniques that optimize nectar production and improve pollination efficiency,” Louf said. “This could help breeders engineer crops to be more responsive to specific pollinators, ultimately contributing to improved global food security.”
Howard’s team will use a modeling approach to predict the composition of colloidal-particle coatings.
For best accuracy, they will utilize a combination of 1) a physics-based continuum model with realistic particle interactions and hydrodynamics, 2) a machine-learned model, trained from particle-based simulations, to refine the physics-based model and 3) a surrogate model to relate particle properties and processing conditions to composition.
“My long-term research goal is to computationally design nanomaterials and processing strategies for making functional soft materials using my unique background in statistical thermodynamics, transport and high-performance computing,” Howard said. “Achieving the objective of this project will position me not only to design coatings but also to apply similar techniques to other nanomaterials and processes.”