Press Release - White House Announces 2007 Awards for Early Career Scientists and Engineers

WASHINGTON – The White House announced today the recipients of the 2007 Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers, the Nation's highest honor for professionals at the outset of their independent scientific research careers. Sixty-seven researchers were honored today in a ceremony presided over by Dr. John H. Marburger III, Science Advisor to the President and Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

The Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers, established in 1996, honors the most promising researchers in the Nation within their fields. Nine federal departments and agencies annually nominate scientists and engineers who are at the start of their independent careers and whose work shows exceptional promise for leadership at the frontiers of scientific knowledge. Participating agencies award these talented scientists and engineers with up to five years of funding to further their research in support of critical government missions.

The recipients of the 2007 Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers, along with their nominating federal department or agency are:

Department of Agriculture

Valerie T. Eviner, University of California, Davis - USDA, Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service

Wendell R. Haag, USDA, Forest Service

Zhongli Pan, USDA, Agricultural Research Service

Department of Commerce

Yi Ming, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

William H. Rippard, National Institute for Standards and Technology

Raymond Simmonds, National Institute for Standards and Technology

Department of Defense

Mung Chiang, Princeton University

Stefano Curtarolo, Duke University

Chad D. Fertig, University of Georgia

Maya Gupta, University of Washington

Brian A. Lail, Florida Institute of Technology

Zhenqiang Ma, University of Wisconsin, Madison

Ravi Ramamoorthi, Columbia University

Purnima Ratilal, Northeastern University

Tim Roughgarden, Stanford University

Rachel A. Segalman, University of California, Berkeley

Max Shtein, University of Michigan

Enrique R. Vivoni, New Mexico Institute of Mining & Technology

Krista S. Walton, Kansas State University

Haiyan Wang, Texas A&M University

Shengli Zhou, University of Connecticut

Department of Education

Gregory A. Fabiano, University of Buffalo

Nicole M. McNeil, University of Notre Dame

Department of Energy
Mickey G. Chiu, Brookhaven National Laboratory

Hooman Davoudiasl, Brookhaven National Laboratory

Bert Debusschere, Sandia National Laboratories

Jennifer S. Martinez, Los Alamos National Laboratory

Wei Pan, Sandia National Laboratories

Robin Santra, Argonne National Laboratory

Yugang Sun, Argonne National Laboratory

Jeanine Cook, New Mexico State University

Department of Health and Human Services:

National Institutes of Health

Daphne W. Bell, National Human Genome Research Center, National Institutes of Health

Thomas A. Blanpied, University of Maryland, School of Medicine

Kevin C. Eggan, Harvard University

Raymond Habas, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey

Amy Heimberger, University of Texas

James C. Iatridis, University of Vermont

Francis S. Lee, Cornell University

Michael J. MacCoss, University of Washington

Elliott H. Margulies, National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health

Suchitra Nelson, Case Western Reserve University

Laura E. O'Dell, University of Texas, El Paso

Li Zhang, University of Southern California, Los Angeles

Department of Veterans Affairs
Mary Bethe Humphrey, Oklahoma City VA Medical Center

National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Charles Kankelborg, Montana State University

Anna M. Michalak, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Merav Opher, George Mason University

National Science Foundation
Monica Medina, University of California, Merced

Michael Elowitz, California Institute of Technology

Sonia Alitzer, University of Georgia

Subhasish Mitra, Stanford University

Stergios I. Roumeliotis, University of Minnesota

Sanjit Seshia, University of California, Berkeley

Nicholas Feamster, Georgia Institute of Technology

Jeremy Gray, Yale University

Maura J. Borrego, Virginia Tech University

Xi Chen, Columbia University

Sanjay Lall, Stanford University

Andre W. Marshall, University of Maryland, College Park

Aaron M. Thomas, University of Idaho

Joan L. Walker, Boston University

Kim M. Cobb, Georgia Institute of Technology

Michael Yu, John Hopkins University

Alexander Gamburd, University of California, Santa Cruz

Anastasia VolOvich, Brown University

Kathrina M. Miranda, University of Arizona

Paul Torrens, Arizona State University