December 7, 2012

David Masiello receives NSF CAREER Award

Assistant Professor David Masiello has received a CAREER (Faculty Early Career Development) Award from the National Science Foundation. The NSF CAREER Program is a Foundation-wide program that “offers the National Science Foundation’s most prestigious awards in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations.” Professor Masiello received the award for his research proposal, “CAREER: Elucidating Light-Matter Interactions on the Nanoscale Using Quantum Many-Body Theory and the Electrodynamics of Swift Electrons.” In particular, the award funds research that will:

1) Establish a first-principles, multiscale theoretical framework capable of rigorously describing the severe deformations of a molecule’s electronic structure when coupled strongly to a plasmonic environment, described by continuum electrodynamics;

2) Numerically implement the electrodynamics of a swift electron and its interactions with a complex nanoscopic environment to characterize the relationship between electron and photon-driven plasmonic excitations and their associated nanophotonic properties;

3) Correlate electron- and photon-excitation sources to learn about the redistribution of energy between near- and far-field and nanoconfined heat in plasmonically active metal nanostructures in the presence of quantum emitters/absorbers, with an emphasis on the achieving high spatial and spectral resolution.

For more information about this NSF CAREER Award, please visit the award website.

For more information about Professor Masiello and his research, please visit his faculty page or his research group website.