5/7/2015 Julia Cation
MechSE graduate student Cai Mike Wang has won the FMC Technologies, Inc., Fellowship Award for 2015-2016.
Wang’s current research, with Assistant Professor SungWoo Nam’s group, focuses on large-scale manuf
Written by Julia Cation
Wang’s current research, with Assistant Professor SungWoo Nam’s group, focuses on large-scale manufacturing of novel 2D nanomaterials (transition metal dichalcogenides and other elemental allotropes beyond graphene); active optoelectronic devices based on strain-engineering of graphene; and tissue-engineering and in-vivo graphene-based bio-sensors.
Wang said the award will allow him to have more flexibility to explore extended long-term research into bolder ideas in the areas of nanomaterials and nanomechanics.
“This award will expand my existing work and capabilities to a variety of applications in sensors, advanced coatings, separation membranes, and adaptive materials, and will help elucidate fundamental research challenges in the scientific and engineering community regarding the effects of morphology and conformation of 2D nanomaterials on their intrinsic chemical/electrical/optical/mechanical/thermal properties,” said Wang.
He said it will also allow him to have more quality time with his undergraduate research mentees from the ISUR program (Illinois Scholars in Undergraduate Research), the MechSE Research Opportunities Scholarship, and the McNairs Scholars programs.
“Mike is a smart, independent, and proactive student, a thoughtful communicator, an excellent teacher, and an outstanding researcher. He has demonstrated a novel approach to realize the generation of nanoscopic texturing of graphene, and he is currently expanding his approach to various two-dimensional materials and exploring advanced functions for coating and sensing applications. I believe that the FMC Fellowship will enable flexibility in his research and allow him to challenge transformative ideas and expand his research efforts into various exciting future applications,” said Nam.
The FMC Fellowship was established in 1963 by a donation in the Link-Belt Company (later acquired by FMC Corporation) by Bert A. Gayman, an 1897 mechanical engineering alumnus of Illinois and native of Champaign. Gayman spent his entire career with the Chicago-based Link-Belt Company.