Yingling receives NSF Career Award

Dr. Yaroslava G. Yingling, assistant professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at North Carolina State University, has received a Faculty Early Career Development Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The award, known as the NSF CAREER Award, is one of the highest honors given by NSF to young faculty in science and engineering.

The award will provide funding over five years to Yingling’s research project entitled, “Integrating DNA and Inorganic Surfaces for Functional Materials Design.” The project is supported by the NSF Materials and Surface Engineering Program in the Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation and the Condensed Matter and Materials Theory program in the Division of Materials Research.

The project will develop a better understanding of the structure and properties of DNA-functionalized surfaces. The research will also formulate rules that will enable the design of new functional materials for biosensors and enhance researchers’ ability to control and direct the materials assembly processes. Yingling will use molecular modeling techniques to develop a theoretical description of the correlation between DNA structure, surface design and properties of these DNA-functionalized surfaces.

If successful, the research will make progress on developing materials for DNA microarrays and biosensors, DNA-based targeted drug delivery, DNA nanomaterials assembly, and DNA directed surface assembly and patterning. The proposed research program will be closely integrated with new education opportunities in disciplines related to DNA and functional surfaces for K-12, undergraduate and graduate students.

Yingling received her BS degree in computer science and engineering from St. Petersburg State Polytechnic University in Russia in 1996, She earned her PhD in materials engineering and high performance computing applications from Pennsylvania State University in 2002.