Judy Su Recipient of NSF CAREER Award

Assistant Professor Judy Su was awarded the NSF CAREER Award, NSF'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." Her proposal, "Bioinspired optical sniffer based on microtoroid resonators and science and technology convergence" is tied closely to her research on FLOWER (Frequency Locked Optical Whispering Evanescent Resonator) which can detect and distinguish ultra-low levels of a wide variety of particles. See the NSF Award Announcement.

Judy said of her work, previously featured by College of Engineering News (read more), "Everything our lab does is centered around ultrasensitive optical sensing, for a wide variety of applications, like environmental health monitoring, food and water quality monitoring, and detecting toxic industrial chemicals," Su said. "Anything worth sensing, we sense."

Judy shared the news on her research website, "Little Sensor Lab," saying of the award, "I’m happy to receive an NSF CAREER award...This was a particularly challenging submission as it was due two months after I gave birth and I have a very active one year old as well. I’m thankful for all the support I received and will do my best to justify the support of NSF and the taxpayer."

Congratulations, Judy!