Professor Lauren Garten, an assistant professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering, has received the National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award, one of the nation's most prestigious honors for early-career faculty. The award will support Garten's research on a new approach for optoelectronic materials that could lead to more efficient, lower-cost renewable energy technologies.

Garten's research explores the mechanisms that allow a single asymmetric (polar) material to separate photo-generated charge for energy applications.

"We have to go to work at finding routes to discover and stabilize a range of new materials that will allow us to test our hypothesis on the underlying mechanisms of polarization-driven charge separation," Garten said.

In addition to supporting research, the NSF CAREER Award will let Garten expand educational outreach efforts to make scientific research more accessible to the general public. Recognizing that many people have limited exposure to scientific work, Prof. Garten plans to create virtual reality experiences that immerse participants in the research process.

"We are going to record how we synthesize materials, take electrical measurements, and build devices with a set of Google VR goggles," Garten said.

With the support of the NSF CAREER Award, Garten is poised to uncover fundamental insights that could shape the next generation of energy-harvesting and sensing technologies.