NSF Funds Engineering Prof

Dr. Michael Dickey, assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, 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 early-career faculty in science and engineering.

To date, NSF has committed $400,000 in funding to support Dickey’s research project, “Understanding and Controlling the Surface Properties of a Micromoldable Liquid Metal.” His work involves a gallium-based fluid with a low viscosity at room temperature. It forms a thin, solid ‘skin’ of oxide that allows the metal to be micromolded into shapes such as wires and antennas that may be useful for flexible electronics.

Dickey received his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 2006. He did postdoctoral work in chemistry at Harvard University from 2006 to 2008.