Sachin Shanbhag has won a prestigious Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award from the National Science Foundation. An assistant professor in the Department of Scientific Computing, Shanbhag will receive $82,000 per year for five years to study synthetic polymers derived from petroleum.

Shanbhag, a computational scientist who has a background in chemical engineering, uses powerful computers to study the dynamics of polymers—materials that the public generally thinks of as plastics. Polymers are used in packaging, piping, films, clothing, cars, and many other things.

“Even the world within us—think cellulose, DNA, and proteins—is primarily polymeric,” Shanbhag said. “So learning how different polymers act and move under different environments is important.”

Kirby Kemper, vice president for research at Florida State, congratulated Shanbhag on his CAREER Award. “Florida State is developing a critical mass of talented young faculty members who will be leaders in their fields for decades to come,” Kemper said. “This is another tangible example of the scholarly rigor that Florida State is already known for and continues to emphasize.”

To read more, go to http://www.fsu.edu/news/2010/07/19/nsf.awards/