Rebecca Anthony, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering in Michigan State University’s College of Engineering, has been awarded a five-year, $500,000 National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Award.
The CAREER Award is among NSF's most prestigious honors, recognizing young faculty members who are effectively integrating research and teaching.
As part of her project called, “Continuous Vapor-Phase Manufacturing of Anisotropic Silicon Nanostructures for Optoelectronic Applications,” the grant will support Anthony’s nanostructure manufacturing research, which will make LED lights more efficient and versatile.
“We’re trying to use sustainable techniques to make semiconductor nanorods and other non-spherical nanostructures,” Anthony said. “By controlling the shapes of these materials, you change the colors of light that they can emit and absorb, as well as other important properties. Spherical is the norm for nanoparticles. We’re trying to expand and break the norm.”
Anthony becomes the 13th member of the MSU College of Engineering faculty to receive an NSF CAREER Award since 2010. She joined the university in August 2013.
In 2016, she was awarded a Withrow Teaching Excellence Award. In the award nomination letter, a student said Anthony creates a learning environment where questions are welcomed, and “this approachable nature makes her a remarkable teacher.”
Anthony earned a doctorate in mechanical engineering from the University of Minnesota and attended Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, where she majored in physics.