Pictured from left, OU professors Wing-Yue Geoffrey Louie, Ngong Kodiah Beyeh and Jun Chen are 2023 NSF CAREER Award recipients.
November 22, 2023
Oakland University researchers garnered three CAREER Awards from the National Science Foundation in 2023, the fourth-most among Michigan’s public universities. The recipients are Ngong Kodiah Beyeh, Jun Chen and Wing-Yue Geoffrey Louie and their work has potential to revolutionize many fields, from materials science to transportation to healthcare and education.
The CAREER Award is part of the NSF’s Faculty Early Career Development Program, which recognizes early-career faculty members who have demonstrated the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education, and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization.
“We are extremely proud of each of these faculty members for the high-caliber work they and their students are doing,” said OU’s Vice President for Research Dr. David Stone. “We also think it says a lot about the growth of both the quality and quantity of research at OU that, in our state, only the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, Michigan State and Wayne State had more CAREER Award recipients than Oakland University did this year.”
Dr. Beyeh, assistant professor of chemistry, obtained a five-year, $700,000 grant that will support research and education on halogen bonding, which could aid development of stronger, more resilient materials. Halogen bonding has several key properties, including water repellence and directionality, which hold promise for creating materials that are self-repairing.
Dr. Chen, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, secured a five-year, $500,000 grant for research on maximizing the driving range and sustainability of battery electric vehicles. The project will use real-time vehicle and traffic data to improve battery efficiency and more accurately measure a battery’s level of charge.
Dr. Louie, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, gained a five-year, $586,000 grant that will support his research on social robots. These artificial intelligence systems have demonstrated significant positive impacts across a range of areas, including delivering K-12 education, therapy for autism spectrum disorder and older adult care.
To learn more about research at Oakland University, visit oakland.edu/research.