Purdue News

June 28, 1991 Faculty Members Receive Presidential Young Investigator Award West Lafayette, Ind. – Four Purdue University faculty members have been selected to receive 1991 Presidential Young Investigator Awards from the National Science Foundation. The awards, which fund research by faculty members near the beginning of their careers, are intended to help universities attract and retain outstanding young scientists and engineers who might otherwise pursue non-teaching careers. The four -- Dor Ben-Amotz, Jonathan D. Bray, Michal Young and David Nolte -- join the ranks of 26 other researchers at Purdue who have received the honor since the program was established in 1983. Each recipient will receive up to $100,000 a year for five years in a combination of federal and matching private funds. Ben-Amotz, assistant professor of chemistry, is developing new models to predict how chemicals react in liquids. The models may also help scientists predict chemical reactions that occur under novel conditions, such as very high temperatures or pressure. "Our goal is to develop more efficient ways of measuring and calculating chemical reactivity in fluids," he said. He is also working with a group of researchers in a series of projects designed to study the physical, chemical and structural properties of carbon molecules known as buckminsterfullerene, or buckyballs. Buckyballs were first identified in 1985 and offer promise for a wide variety of new commercial products, including featherweight batteries, tiny ball bearings and new lubricants. Ben-Amotz joined the faculty at Purdue in 1989. He received his doctoral degree in chemistry from the University of California at Berkeley in 1986. He holds a bachelor's degree from Bennington College and a master's degree from Brandeis University. Jonathan Bray, assistant professor of civil engineering, earned his doctoral degree in geotechnical engineering at the University of California at Berkeley in 1990. He earned a master's degree in structural engineering at Stanford University in 1981 and his bachelor's degree at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1980. Bray is researching the effects of underground-foundation movement on overlying soil. His research has particular application to earth structures such as dams and landfills constructed in regions with potentially active faults. He has been studying the response of five earth dams strongly shaken by the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake in the San Francisco area. He is also developing physical and numerical models that provide insight regarding the response of soil to underlying base-rock movements. This knowledge will allow critical facilities to be located and constructed to reduce damage due to earthquakes. "While this problem is complex and not very well understood at this time, we know that different soil deposits respond differently under earthquake conditions," Bray said. Nolte, assistant professor of physics, conducts research in the area of nonlinear optics. Much of his research revolves around the use of lasers designed to probe the structure and dynamics of semiconductors. "One of our primary goals is to try to get photons to interact with each other in solids," Nolte said. "This research may someday lead to applications in the areas of telecommunications and optical computing." Nolte joined the Purdue faculty in 1989. He received his bachelor's degree from Cornell University in 1981 and his doctorate from the University of California at Berkeley in 1988. Young, assistant professor of computer science, specializes in the field of software engineering His research includes studies aimed at improving software development environments for multi-process and real-time systems. One project, for example, is directed toward developing a software system to help programmers detect bugs in programs with multiple processes. "Concurrent programs are particularly difficult to test or verify using conventional methods," Young said. "Future computers and networks will require more concurrent programming, and programmers will need all the help we can give them to make their programs reliable." Young joined the Purdue faculty in 1989 after receiving a doctoral degree from the University of California. He holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Oregon and a master's degree from the University of California at Irvine. Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu To the Purdue News and Photos Page