Xiao Li, Assistant Professor in Department of Materials Science and Engineering has earned $715,009 grant through the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Faculty Early Career Development Program.

The NSF CAREER award is the most prestigious recognition for early career research faculty. It is granted to selected tenured-track faculty who haven’t earned tenure and whose scholarly products have a high impact in their discipline and/or on society.

Li, who focuses her research on nanostructure design, including the self-assembly of softer materials such as polymers, liquid crystals, colloidal particles and elastomers, will investigate new strategies for developing revolutionary chiral materials. Chirality is a geometric property of a molecule or structure that cannot be superimposed on its mirror image. It is prevalent in the human body with DNA and proteins and used in fields such as mechanical and biological engineering.

Visit UNT Research and Innovation page for more information about her and the other two fellow UNT awardees.