Carter, Russel to receive ACS awards

By Steven Schultz on Sept. 26, 2006, 4:54 p.m.

Princeton faculty members Emily Carter and William Russel will be honored by the American Chemical Society this spring.

Carter, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, will receive the 2007 ACS Award for Computers in Chemical and Pharmaceutical Research. Russel, the Arthur Marks *19 Professor of Chemical Engineering and dean of the Graduate School, will receive the 2007 ACS Award in Colloid and Surface Chemistry.

Both will have scientific symposiums held in their honor during the society's meeting in Chicago in March.

Carter's award is intended to recognize and encourage the use of computers in the advancement of the chemical and biological sciences. A Princeton faculty member since 2004, she creates state-of-the-art computer simulations that model complex phenomena in chemistry and materials science. The ultimate practical goal of such work is to engineer nanomaterials -- materials designed on an atom-by-atom level -- that perform better than existing materials or replace them altogether.

Carter's lab is supported by seven different grants and includes nine graduate students and four postdoctoral researchers. One of her funders is the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, for which she is developing new thermal barrier coatings that could increase the lifetime of jet engines.

The society cited Russel "for seminal theoretical and experimental contributions to fundamental understanding of the phase behavior, structure and rheology of colloidal dispersions." His research interests focus on developing a fundamental understanding and ability to manipulate colloids, which are fine particles dispersed in a fluid. The work has broad applications from the improvement of paints to the development of self-assembling materials used in advanced optical-electronic devices.

Russel has been a member of the Princeton faculty since 1974 and was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1992. He has served as dean of the Graduate School since 2002. 

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