The National Science Foundation recently awarded Thayer School of Engineering Professor John Yin the distinguished Young Investigator Award in recognition of his scientific achievements.
The Young Investigator Award guarantees Yin up to $100,000 per year for the next five years in research funding and is designed to foster interaction between academia and industry.
While the bulk of Yin's award is composed of money from the N.S.F., it also includes potential grants from private industrial companies.
The foundation, which awarded 150 U.S. scientists for their achievements, cited Yin for his educational innovations and for his multidisciplinary approach to research.
While conventional awards restrict researchers to work on a specific project or proposal, Yin's grant gives him freedom to pursue an array of projects.
One of the many topics Yin is pursuing is virus evolution. Combining the fields of biochemical engineering and virology in his work, he is using mathematical and computer models to explain the workings of a virus's replication processes, he said.
Yin said he plans to use his award to purchase lab equipment and help pay graduate students who assist him.
Yin, who joined the Dartmouth faculty in 1992, graduated from Columbia University with both a B.A. in liberal arts and a B.S. in chemical engineering. He obtained his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of California at Berkeley.
Before coming to Dartmouth, Yin worked as a research fellow at the Max-Planck-Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Germany.
Yin said he feels the Young Investigator Award will help him attract top graduate students and more funding. He said it also lends support to the depth of the Thayer School's Biochemical Engineering and Biotechnology department
Graham Wallis, interim dean of the Thayer School, said Yin's N.S.F. grant is a "feather in our cap." He praised Yin for his creative and eclectic approach to research and said he believes Yin "represents the interdisciplinary tradition of Thayer very well."
Wallis said he considers the award a positive reflection of the high quality of research work at the College.
