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Gu, Dickey receive Alcoa Foundation Engineering Research Awards

Dr. Michael Dickey, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, receives the Alcoa Foundation Distinguished Engineering Research Award from Dr. Louis Martin-Vega, dean of the College of Engineering, and Dr. Douglas Reeves, associate dean of graduate programs for the College.
Dr. Michael Dickey (center), professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, receives the Alcoa Foundation Distinguished Engineering Research Award from Dr. Louis Martin-Vega (left), dean of the College of Engineering, and Dr. Douglas Reeves, associate dean of graduate programs for the College.
Dr. Zhen Gu (center), associate professor of biomedical engineering, receives the Alcoa Foundation Engineering Research Achievement Award from Dr. Louis Martin-Vega (left) and Dr. Douglas Reeves.
Dr. Zhen Gu (center), associate professor of biomedical engineering, receives the Alcoa Foundation Engineering Research Achievement Award from Dr. Martin-Vega (left) and Dr. Reeves.

The 2017 Alcoa Foundation Engineering Research Awards were presented to Dr. Zhen Gu, associate professor in the Joint UNC/NC State Department of Biomedical Engineering, and Dr. Michael Dickey, professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, at the spring faculty meeting of the College of Engineering at North Carolina State University.

Gu was awarded the Alcoa Foundation Engineering Research Achievement Award, which recognizes young faculty members who have accomplished outstanding research achievements during the preceding three years. Dickey received the Alcoa Foundation Distinguished Engineering Research Award, made to a senior faculty member for research achievements over a period of at least five years at NC State.

Gu’s accomplishments in developing novel material and biological chemistry tools to address important questions in controlled drug delivery are impressive and internationally known. His groundbreaking contributions at the interface between drug delivery and materials science have resulted in inventions including a smart insulin patch, liquid metal nanomedicine and immune blockade platelets. Focused on developing new stimuli-responsive drug delivery systems, such as glucose-responsive insulin delivery and tumor microenvironment-triggered programmable anticancer drug delivery, he has independently published around 70 research papers in high-profile journals, such as Nature Communications and Nature Biomedical Engineering. Most recently, he was selected as a TR35 Global Young Innovator by MIT Technology Review.

Dickey is recognized internationally as a leader in the field of actuating polymers and soft materials. His work in the advancing of the novel use and fundamental understanding of liquid metals based on gallium is noted as an important and impactful intellectual contribution. Although liquid metals have been known for years, he helped identify the importance of the surface oxide that forms on these metals as an enabler for patterning the metal to form soft, stretchable and shape-reconfigurable conductors. This work led to a patent and licensing from three companies. His significant contributions don’t stop there as he is advancing the concept of “self- folding” as a means of converting two-dimensional patterns into three-dimensional structures. His research has received significant media attention from major outlets including: Nature, The New York Times, Forbes, Chemical Engineering Progress, and U.S. News & World Report, and videos featuring his work have received more than 2.1 million hits on YouTube in four years.

– heath –