Five Institute of Technology faculty named McKnight Land-Grant Professors

Five Institute of Technology faculty are among 13 recipients of the 2008-10 McKnight Land-Grant Professorship, a program designed to advance the careers of the University's most promising junior faculty.

Chosen for their potential to make important contributions to their field, each recipient will receive a research grant of approximately $30,000 in each year of the two-year appointment, to be used at the recipient's discretion for expenditures directly related to research and scholarly activities. In addition, each professor is awarded either a year's leave to pursue research during the second year of the award or a supplementary research grant.

The college's new McKnight Land-Grant Professors are:

	Assistant Professor Taner Akkin (biomedical engineering) researches non-invasive optical imaging of tissue microstructure and function.
	Assistant Professor Alptekin Aksan (mechanical engineering) develops methods to stabilize and preserve proteins, cells, tissues and ultimately, organs in a desiccated/vitrified state.
	Assistant Professor Nicholas Hopper (computer science and engineering) researches provable security analysis of privacy-related technologies.
	Assistant Professor Chris Hyung-il Kim (electrical and computer engineering) researches design for reliability:  making future generation chips resilient to aging.
	Assistant Professor Katsumi Matsumoto (geology and geophysics) researches climate change and carbon cycling in oceans and lakes.