Assistant Professor Kim M. Lewis, Physicist

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

National Science Foundation CAREER Award

Troy, N.Y., Jan 24, 2012 – Kim M. Lewis, Assistant Professor of Physics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) has recently received funding from the National Science Foundation through a CAREER Award to promote faculty early career development.  This award supports junior faculty who exhibit outstanding research, excellent education, and the integration of education and research.

Dr. Lewis’ research on the Electronic Properties of Molecular Junctions has been garnering a lot of attention in the scientific community because of its many applications that has the potential to impact electronic devices, such as the memory elements in our smart phones.  Dr. Lewis' research promotes the use of molecules as active or passive components in electric circuits.  Such devices have the advantage of size that can be as small as one nanometer, which can reduce cost and increase efficiency of electronic circuits and self-assembly that can be exploited to build molecular platforms for drug delivery and photovoltaic devices. 

Electronic devices composed of molecules have the ability to control current in one direction to exhibit rectification behavior or demonstrate switching properties to act as a memory element.  Understanding the origin of these electronic properties can lead to the fundamental understanding of single molecule devices.  Ultimately, this can stimulate the scientific impact molecular electronics can have on society through techniques for drug delivery where molecules can work in concert to transport drugs to a specific location in the body or future applications, such as chemical senors to detect the presence of harmful molecular species.

This research promotes the scientific training of students for the science and engineering workforce.  This is accomplished through an educational program called NOLA MOVERS, which was established by Dr. Lewis.  Dr. Lewis explains that "this program exists as a recruitment tool to support students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) to participate in cutting edge research at Rensselaer".  Dr. Lewis is a native of New Orleans and an HBCU graduate from that area, so strong ties exist with this community.  Also, Dr. Lewis has implemented a program to mobilize "undeclared" science students in Rensselaer's School of Science.

Dr. Lewis is one of the handful of African American Women Physicists in the United States today, and is an Assistant Professor of Physics at RPI.

If you would like more information please contact Dr. Lewis at: http://www.professorkimmichellelewis.com/contact