February 27, 2006

Maria Receives NSF Career Award

Dr. Maria (Photo: Roger Winstead)

Dr. Jon-Paul Maria, assistant professor of materials science and engineering at North Carolina State University, has received a Faculty Early Career Development (Career) Award from the National Science Foundation, effective August 1, 2006. The Career award is one of the highest honors given by NSF to young university faculty in science and engineering.

As part of the award, NSF will provide $400,000 in funding over the next five years. Maria will use the funding to support his research project, “Career: Structure Property Relationships in BiFeO₃: A Defect Chemistry Approach.” The aim of the research is to explore how gas-phase/condensed-phase equilibrium can be used to control defect equilibrium in an oxide crystal. In doing so, an otherwise unachievable level of property and performance engineering can be achieved. The BiFeO₃ composition is of interest because it is one of very few known crystals in which ferroelectricity and ferromagnetism simultaneously occur.

In conjunction with the research component of the project, Maria has developed an education plan that develops laboratory curricula appropriate for K-12 students and will be shared with North Carolina science teachers through a series of summer short courses. The aim is to raise awareness of materials science — specifically pertaining to electronic materials — in young students since the subject matter is typically absent from K-12 curricula.

Maria joined the College of Engineering in 1998. He earned his Ph.D. in ceramic science from The Pennsylvania State University in 1998.

— weston —

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