5/21/2024
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MechSE and MatSE professor Arend van der Zande was named one of this year’s recipients of The Grainger College of Engineering Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research. He was one of just four faculty who won in the associate professor category.
The award honors faculty who have demonstrated an outstanding record of research achievements and publications during the previous five academic years.
Van der Zande leads an interdisciplinary research group at the nexus of nanotechnology, mechanics, and material physics. His research focuses on the mechanics of nanostructures and leveraging the unique properties of nanomaterials for next-generation technologies like biosensors, quantum systems and wearable electronics. He was recently awarded the 2022 Society of Engineering Science Young Investigator Medal, the NSF CAREER award, and was included on the Clarivate Analytics list of the world’s most influential researchers four times between 2018 and 2022. He is an Associate Editor for the journal ACS Nano Letters.
In 2017 – only his second year as an assistant professor – van der Zande co-led the proposal for the $15.6M Illinois Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (IMRSEC), the first MRSEC to be awarded to the university. As a group lead, he coordinates the work of 11 research groups. In September 2023, the center was funded for an additional $18M under his co-leadership.
Van der Zande was formally recognized at the college awards ceremony April 29.