Assistant professor wins National Science Foundation CAREER award

Mark Ming-Cheng Cheng, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, won a 2011 National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award for his research project "A Robust, Chronic Neural Prosthesis Using High-Capacity Graphene Electrodes and Biodegradable Silicon Support," which links micro-fabricated devices to medicine. He received more than $450,000 for this proposed research.

The NSF CAREER Program offers the National Science Foundation's most prestigious awards in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations.

The potential impact of Cheng's research is significant: real-time sensing and treatment by neural implants can be used to treat a variety of neurological maladies. More than 200,000 patients with full or partial paralysis may benefit from this technology in the United States alone.