News Release

____________________________________________________________

July 7, 2005

Boise State Physics Prof Receives $400,000 NSF Career Grant for Excellence in Integrating Research and Education

Caption: Boise State physics professor Alex Punnoose, right, shows graduate student Jason Hays how to mount a magnetic semiconductor thin film on a magneto-optical Kerr (MOK) system to investigate the magnetic properties. Punnoose recently received a $400,000 CAREER award from the National Science Foundation for his excellence in integrating research and education. click image to view full size

Boise State University physics professor Alex Punnoose has received the National Science Foundation’s most prestigious award for early career faculty — a $400,000 grant that recognizes his effectiveness at integrating education and research

The CAREER award, given to outstanding faculty from across the nation who are most likely to become the academic leaders of the 21^st century, will support Punnoose’s research. The grant also provides funding for as many as 15 Boise State graduate and undergraduate students to work in his lab over the next five years.

“I’m very honored to receive this award,” said Punnoose, who joined Boise State’s faculty in 2002. “My research techniques and the topics I teach are directly related and I find that conducting research makes me a better teacher. Working with undergraduate students is really fun and I also learn many things from my students that are useful in my research.”

Punnoose has more than $2.1 million in current funding from various agencies including four NSF awards. His research involves two of the hottest fields in science and technology today, nanotechnology and spintronics. Punnoose is researching ways to make semiconductors smaller (nanotechnology) and more effective by making use of the magnetic behavior of electrons (spintronics). His latest award is for a project titled “Development and Investigations of Transition-Metal-Doped Ferromagnetic SnO2 Thin Films and Structures.”

As part of the NSF project, Punnoose and his students will collaborate with scientists at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Lawrence-Berkeley National Laboratory, Micron Technology, the University of Idaho and Argonne National Laboratory.

Boise State graduate student Jason Hays of Nampa is among the students involved in the NSF project. “Working in a lab allows me to get experience I wouldn’t get otherwise,” said Hays, who earned a bachelor’s degree in physics from Boise State and is now pursuing a master’s in materials science and engineering. “I’ve also had the opportunity to have papers published in major journals and collaborate with other researchers.”

Aaron Thurber, a senior physics major, said he’s also benefited from working with Punnoose. “I understand what I’m learning in class on a much deeper level when I have a chance to apply it in a lab setting,” Thurber said.

Punnoose earned a Ph.D. in physics from Aligarh University in Aligarh, India. He previously worked as a postdoctoral associate at West Virginia University.

While Boise State professors have previously received the prestigious NSF CAREER award, Punnoose is the first one from the College of Arts and Sciences, said Charles Hanna, associate chair of the Department of Physics.

“This NSF CAREER award reflects the research and teaching excellence of Alex Punnoose, and the fact that Boise State is rising in the world of research and academic strength,” Hanna said.

Contact: Alex Punnoose, Department of Physics, (208) 426-2268, apunnoos@boisestate.edu

Media Contact: Janelle Brown, communications and marketing, (208) 426-1790, jbrown2@boisestate.edu

The Office of Communications and Marketing - Boise State University
1910 University Drive - Education Building, #726 - Boise Idaho 83725-1030

208-426-1577
(fax)208-426-4001

email newservices@boisestate.edu

Last reviewed on Thursday, December 22, 2005