Three UCF faculty were named 2025 U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program award winners while two recent faculty hires transferred their CAREER projects to continue their work at Florida’s Premier Engineering and Technology University.
All five awardees teach and conduct research through UCF’s College of Engineering and Computer Science (CECS), and together their funding totals an estimated $3 million to advance real world technologies and positively impact the world.
The annual award program from NSF supports an estimated 500 early-career STEM faculty nationwide from either institutes of higher education or academic nonprofit organizations 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.
Read article from UCF Today.
By Eddy Duryea ’13 | June 25, 2025
Studying Specialized Semiconductors
Sidong Lei
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
NanoScience Technology Center (NTSC)
Project Title: Van der Waals Semiconductor Integration via Surface and Interface Tailoring
Award: A total of $516,085 over five years, with $449,136 over three years at UCF
Sidong Lei endeavors to meet the demand for better materials to help make smaller devices run more efficiently.
Elevating Rare Earth Elements to Make Powerful Magnets
Wen Shen
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE)
NanoScience Technology Center
Project Title: Manufacturing of Rare Earth Permanent Magnets via Three-dimensional Printing and Decomposition of Hydrogels
Award: $697,264 over five years
Rare earth permanent magnets (REPMs) — composed of alloys containing rare-earth elements — are the strongest permanent magnets with numerous applications across aerospace, automotive, electronics, medical devices and renewable energy industries due to their exceptional magnetic properties.