2/25/2021 Claire Benjamin
Chemical and biomolecular engineering professor Simon Rogers is among 85 early-career engineers selected to take part in the National Academy of Engineering’s (NAE) 26th annual U.S. Frontiers of Engineering symposium
Written by Claire Benjamin
Chemical and biomolecular engineering professor Simon Rogers was among 85 of the nation’s brightest early-career engineers selected to take part in the National Academy of Engineering’s (NAE) 26th annual U.S. Frontiers of Engineering (USFOE) symposium. Engineers who are performing exceptional research and technical work in a variety of disciplines will come together for the two-and-a-half day event. The participants from industry, academia, and government were nominated by fellow engineers or organizations.
"It was a privilege to meet with such a distinguished and passionate group and discuss how we can harness our research to benefit society," said Rogers, who investigates the fundamental physics behind time-dependent phenomena exhibited by soft matter under deformation for biomedical, energy, and environmental applications. He earned bachelor’s and honors degrees in physics from Victoria University of Wellington and a doctorate in physics from the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnologies at Victoria University. He joined the department in 2015.
The 2020 USFOE was originally scheduled to be hosted by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado in September; however, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the meeting was held virtually, February 25-26, 2021, to discuss cutting-edge developments in four areas:
- Food for Thought: The AgRevolution Shaping What We (Will) Eat
- Next-generation Energy Systems Integration
- Engineering Innovation in Women’s Health
- Plastics: Pollution Challenges and Innovations
“The Frontiers of Engineering program brings together a talented group of young engineers from different technical areas to spark innovation and facilitate long-term collaborations,” said NAE President John L. Anderson (MS ’69, PhD ’79). “These relationships are critical in developing creative engineering solutions to the world’s problems.”
The symposium was supported by The Grainger Foundation, National Science Foundation, Air Force Office of Science and Research, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, Microsoft Research, Cummins, and Amazon.
The mission of the NAE is to advance the welfare and prosperity of the nation by promoting a vibrant engineering profession and by marshaling the expertise and insights of eminent engineers to provide independent advice to the federal government on matters involving engineering and technology. The NAE is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, an independent, nonprofit organization chartered by Congress to provide objective analysis and advice to the nation on matters of science, technology, and health.