Canan Dagdeviren, head of the Conformable Decoders research group, has received the 2021 National Science Foundation's Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) award, and the 3M Non-Tenured Faculty award.

The CAREER award will support Dagdeviren’s research on Conformable Piezoelectrics for Soft Tissue Imaging. Dagdeviren leads her research group's work in the development of novel classes of conformable ultrasound systems that may soon enable comprehensive insights into soft tissue biology—presently not possible due to a lack of suitable instrumentation. This research can significantly advance the understanding of soft tissue imaging by enabling an ultrasound technology that could be scaled up in size to any human body part.

“With the support of the NSF CAREER and 3M Non-Tenured Faculty awards, my goal is to make substantial scientific and leadership contributions to the emerging field of widely deployed biosensing tools, and to achieve a broader understanding of soft tissue in a collective and systemic way for improved human health," notes Dagdeviren. "Over the course of five years, we aim to achieve that goal in terms of soft tissue decoding. We'll also continue our ongoing efforts to promote engagement in STEAMD (science, technology, engineering, art, math, and design) fields, and to inspire the study of conformable piezoelectric systems, especially among underrepresented groups at the K-12, undergraduate, and graduate education levels.”

Dagdeviren is one of multiple MIT recipients of this year's prestigious NSF CAREER award, which grants $500,000 to support early-career faculty, and advance their research and education goals. The CAREER Program is an NSF-wide activity that offers 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.

Dagdeviren has also been selected to receive the 3M Non-Tenured Faculty Award from 3M Corporation, a multinational industrial and consumer technology company. This award recognizes outstanding new faculty who were nominated by 3M researchers and selected based on their research, experience and academic leadership. The purpose of the award is designed to not only recognize the outstanding young faculty who excel in STEM research, academic leadership, and experience, but also as a means of helping them achieve tenure.