Dandin Receives NSF CAREER Award
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded Marc Dandin, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, the Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award, a prestigious five-year grant given to junior faculty for research and education.
Dandin’s research interests lie at the intersection of microsystems engineering, integrated circuit design, and biomedicine. His research focuses on establishing new paradigms in technology integration for interfacing electronics with biological systems. His research objectives are two-fold: first, he seeks to learn from biology to design more efficient and smarter artificial sensing and actuation systems, and second, he aims to develop translational bioengineering approaches for enabling novel diagnostics methods and therapies that address unmet needs in medicine.
For this specific NSF CAREER Award, Dandin introduces a novel paradigm for imaging near the quantum limit. Solid-state single-photon detectors are a class of light sensors that are designed to detect and process light at single photon resolution. These sensors enable a wide variety of modern technologies like quantum computing and integrated biosensor platforms for biomedical analysis. One novel technology trend is to integrate single-photon sensors with microelectronic chips. This integration provides on-board signal processing in addition to ready interfacing with other systems. While there has been much progress in the development of integrated single-photon sensors, there remain quite a few scientific and technological barriers to their widespread adoption. For example, the tradeoffs between noise, temperature, resolution, and photodetection efficiency remain unfavorable for many applications. The proposed research takes a layered approach toward solving some of these outstanding issues, in addition to uncovering new applications in which integrated single photon sensors can provide added benefit or entirely new capabilities. Furthermore, a broader impact of the proposed research program will be a framework that features early educational experiences in optoelectronic science and engineering for middle and high school students. The framework will also include a robust translational research component and an entrepreneurship practicum for both undergraduate and graduate students.
The CAREER Program is a Foundation-wide activity that offers the National Science Foundation's most prestigious awards in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization. Activities pursued by early-career faculty should build a firm foundation for a lifetime of leadership in integrating education and research.