Georgia Institute of Technology Materials Science and Engineering

MSE Assistant Professor Josh Kacher has won a 2021 Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Awards from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

The CAREER Award is the NSF’s most prestigious award in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education, and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations.

The focus of Kacher’s work is to understand how variations in grain boundary structure affect the strength of the grain boundary, which is a critical parameter is determining the strength and mechanical behavior of metals. Part of the project will involve developing a new type of microscopy, which merges in-line analysis with artificial intelligence for rapid characterization of metals in the scanning electron microscope. The broader outreach portion of the project involves bringing on underrepresented minority high school students for summer internships and helping them develop lesson plans to take back to their classes in the following school year.

Kacher joins Blair Brettmann who was informed of her NSF Career Award in December.