Markus Buehler, Joel Dawson and Scott Sheffield have received 2009 Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers, the nation's highest honor for professionals at the outset of their independent scientific research careers.
Buehler, Dawson and Sheffield are among 100 researchers to receive the honor this year. These scientists and engineers will receive up to a five-year research grant to further their study in support of critical government missions.
Buehler, the Esther and Harold E. Edgerton Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, was nominated for the award by the Department of Defense; and Dawson, associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science, and Sheffield, professor of mathematics, were nominated by the National Science Foundation.
The Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers, established in 1996, are coordinated by the Office of Science and Technology Policy within the Executive Office of the President. Awardees are selected on the basis of two criteria: Pursuit of innovative research at the frontiers of science and technology and a commitment to community service as demonstrated through scientific leadership, public education, or community outreach.
The researchers will receive their awards in the fall at a White House ceremony.