Baolin Deng Awarded NSF Career Award

by George Zamora

SOCORRO, N.M., April 16, 2001 -- Baolin Deng, assistant professor of environmental engineering at New Mexico Tech, recently was named a recipient of one of the National Science Foundation's (NSF) renowned 2001 Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Awards.

The NSF grant of almost $375,000 will provide funding for Deng and his fellow Tech researchers to conduct a five-year study on "Integrating Research and Education on Arsenic Removal from Drinking Water."

The CAREER Award is NSF's most prestigious honor for junior faculty members teaching and conducting research in colleges and universities throughout the nation.

Deng's research proposal was one of only 350 or so picked for federal funding from a pool of about 2,000 proposals submitted for consideration.

"Through this new research project, I'm hoping to develop a new, innovative method for arsenic removal from drinking water," Deng says, "one which, hopefully, will be very efficient, as well as cost-effective."

In addition to having at least two Tech graduate students help with his study, Deng foresees implementing an educational component to his research work by also involving state science
teachers enrolled in New Mexico Tech's Master of Science Teaching (MST) degree-granting program.

"Since science and engineering are best taught to the K-12 science teachers and their students through hands-on, inquiry based experiences, laboratory and field projects on arsenic measurements and treatment will be implemented as part of the program," Deng explains.

The NSF established the CAREER Awards program in 1995 to help top-performing scientists and engineers early in their careers to develop simultaneously their contributions and commitment to both research and education.

"CAREER Awards support exceptionally promising college and university junior faculty who are committed to the integration of research and education," says NSF Director Rita Colwell. "We recognize these faculty members, new in their careers, as most likely to become the academic leaders of the 21st Century."

Upon being named a recipient of a CAREER Award, Deng and his fellow awardees may become eligible to receive the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers, the White House's highest honor for scientist and engineers in the early stages of their careers.