Mingjiang Zhong Wins 3M Non-tenured Faculty Award

Mingjiang Zhong, assistant professor of chemical & environmental engineering, has received a 3M Non-tenured Faculty Award.

The award, designed to encourage the pursuit of new ideas among younger university professors, totals $45,000 over three years. Zhong said the funding will go toward funding his research in developing "pseudo-insertion living radical polymerization that enables tacticity control in the polymer products."

“This award is a well-deserved honor for Mingjiang and a great show of support for his important work,” said Jaehong Kim, the Henry P. Becton Sr. Professor and Chair of Chemical & Environmental Engineering.

Areas of Zhong's research include a focus on new synthetic methods for the preparation of functional organic materials and organic-inorganic interfaces. Among other projects, Zhong has worked on developing a new polymer that could be used for biomedical applications as well as water filtration. He has also researched the development of a group of materials known as Janus graft block copolymers. When designed a certain way, these materials can be used to make nanostructured polymers with ultra-small nanodomains with diverse morphologies and bulk properties.

According to 3M, the award enables “recipients to pursue their own lines of interest and provides an opportunity to come to 3M and interact with their peers” and allows 3M researchers an “opportunity to stay in touch with the creative ideas that are stimulating some of the nation's brightest young scientists."