By the Office of Engineering Communications
May 9, 2025
Five researchers in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering received innovation grants from the School of Engineering and Applied Science. These are among 21 projects funded by the latest round of innovation grants, totaling more than $3 million. Since 2008, innovation awards have enabled engineering faculty members to take their research in bold new directions that address critical issues in technology, health and the environment. The grants often fuel initial discoveries that lead to larger awards from external funding agencies.
Princeton Engineering’s Innovation Research Grants come from the University’s own resources, including Princeton’s endowment and other gifts for initiatives in engineering.
Helen Shipley Hunt Fund
Christine Allen-Blanchette and Alison Ferris, both assistant professors of mechanical and aerospace engineering, for the project “Toward accelerated sustainable aviation fuel design: A data-driven framework for fuel design and discovery”
Project X Fund
Luc Deike, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and the High Meadows Environmental Institute, and Martin Wühr, associate professor of molecular biology and the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, for the project “Unveiling the physics behind electrospray ionization to engineer more sensitive and quantitative mass spectrometry”
Aditya Sood, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and the Princeton Materials Institute, for the project “On-chip photo-switches for ultrafast electrical stimulation” (also supported by the Morton and Donna Collins Fund and the Samberg Family Fund)
Additional Engineering Research Funds
Yiguang Ju, the Robert Porter Patterson Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, was awarded funds from an anonymous donor for the project “Plasma-assisted catalytic decomposition of N2O from ammonia oxidation.”