Alexandre Bayen, Associate Professor of Systems Engineering, has won the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), it was announced late Friday, Nov. 5.
Bayen is being honored for his mobile sensing work on both the Mobile Millennium project and the Floating Sensor Network. He won the National Science Foundation Career Award last year; the NSF then nominated him for the PECASE award.
PECASE is the highest honor bestowed by the United States government on young professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers. A total of 85 recipients were announced in a press release late Friday.
Bayen acknowledged the work of the California Center for Innovative Transportation, the Institute of Transportation Studies, and CITRIS – the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society – the research groups at UC Berkeley with whom he collaborated.
“The support and visibility that these organizations provided brought the work to a level of success that otherwise would have been very difficult to achieve,” Bayen said.
The awards, established by President Clinton in 1996, are coordinated by the Office of Science and Technology Policy within the Executive Office of the President. Ten federal departments and agencies join together annually to nominate the most meritorious scientists and engineers whose early accomplishments show the greatest promise for assuring America’s preeminence in science and engineering and contributing to the awarding agencies' missions.
Awardees are selected for their pursuit of innovative research at the frontiers of science and technology and their commitment to community service as demonstrated through scientific leadership, public education, or community outreach. Winning scientists and engineers have received research grants for up to five years to further their studies in support of critical government missions.
The recipients will be honored at a White House ceremony in January.