Early recognition

The Department of Energy (DOE) announced its 2015 Early Career Research Award winners in May, and among its recipients was Jeetain Mittal, assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering.

Entering its sixth year, the Early Career Research Program issues five-year awards providing $750,000 to support the development of individual research programs of outstanding scientists in the early phase of their careers.

Mittal's proposal, "Biomolecular Assembly Processes in the Design of Novel Functional Materials," was one of more than 600 proposals submitted to the DOE and one of only 44 proposals granted funding.

The proposal, chosen by the office of Basic Energy Sciences, seeks to develop a comprehensive computational strategy to seamlessly connect various scales involved in DNA-mediated particle assembly, ranging from interactions between both standard Watson Crick and often ignored non-Watson Crick base pairs to interactions between two complementary DNA-coated particles and then to multi-particle assembly into complex crystalline phases.

In another computational project, Mittal is attempting to design a method of sorting carbon nanotubes that leads to high-purity, high-yield nanotube production.

Mittal is the director of the Biophysics and Soft Matter Group at Lehigh.

Story by Chris Larkin


Photo by Ryan Hulvat