Three Duke professors were among the 56 recipients of the 2005 Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers, White House officials announced July 26.
The announcement called the award "the nation's highest honor for professionals at the outset of their independent research careers." Among research universities, Duke tied with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for the most award recipients.
Silvia Ferrari, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and materials science, Jonathan Mattingly, associate professor of mathematics, and Tannishtha Reya, assistant professor of pharmacology and cancer biology, received their awards at a White House ceremony last month, which featured a brief speech by President George W. Bush.
"It's an interesting experience to talk with all the other awardees," Mattingly said. He described the honorees as "one list of people that are doing interesting work."
Nine federal agencies and departments can nominate researchers for the honor.
Reya earned her nomination from the National Institutes of Health, which is a major source of funding for her research. She explained that receiving the award has significant and practical implications for her.
The NIH extended her grant, due to expire in a year and a half, for an additional three and a half years.
"It allows us to do a lot of the research we were planning to do without having to worry about funding," Reya said.
Blood stem cells have been the focus of her study, and she has investigated the signals that prompt them to renew themselves or produce new cells. She noted that the field's most immediate implications are for transplantation therapy.
Born in India and the recipient of a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania, Reya has received a number of awards and worked at Duke since 2001.
"For me, I think Duke has been a phenomenal place to be," Reya said, adding that her colleagues are very supportive. "It's been a great place for a young scientist to thrive."
Both Mattingly and Ferrari received their nominations from the National Science Foundation, which last year gave each a Faculty Early Career Development grant worth $400,000 over five years.
Ferrari, who directs the Laboratory for Intelligent Systems and Controls at the Pratt School of Engineering, focuses her research on adaptive control technology. With applications in industry and aviation, the technology enables machines to operate without human control and to alter and adapt behavior over time.
Already the recipient of multiple awards and a doctorate from Princeton University, Ferrari joined Duke's faculty in 2003.
Mattingly's research revolves around probability, and he said his understanding of potential applications and interest in interdisciplinarity have helped guide him. His work has centered on the effects of small-scale randomness on models of complex systems.
"I think that the most interesting or novel mathematics-or any science-is often done at the boundaries between disciplines," Mattingly said.
At Duke since 2002, he also earned his doctorate from Princeton and has conducted research at several universities in the United States and Europe. He, too, described the University as a good environment for junior faculty members.
"My department is wonderfully welcoming and fostering of young researchers," Mattingly said.
This is the first time any Duke faculty member has received the award since the 2001 award cycle.
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