Dr. S. Pamir Alpay, an associate professor in the Chemical, Materials & Biomolecular Engineering Department, was selected to receive a United Technologies Corporation (UTC) Professor in Engineering Innovation Award for his exceptional achievements in research, instruction and service. It is one of just five presented to faculty at the rank of assistant or associate professor across the School of Engineering. Dr. Alpay was chosen by his department and will receive discretionary funds of $5,000 per year that he may apply toward professional development.

Dr. Alpay received his Ph.D. (1999) in materials engineering from the University of Maryland and his M.S. from Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey. He also completed post-doctoral work at the University of Maryland before joining UConn in 2001. The focus of Dr. Alpay’s research is functional or “smart” materials, which include ferroelectric, ferromagnetic, and shape memory materials. His current research involves the development of frequency agile tunable devices for telecommunications and self-healing electrical contacts for military applications. Dr. Alpay is the recipient of the National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award (2001), the Outstanding Junior Faculty Award of the School of Engineering, University of Connecticut (2004), and a NATO-A1 doctoral scholarship (1994). Dr. Alpay has more than 90 scholarly journal papers, over 20 refereed conference proceedings papers, and three invited book chapters. He is also co-author of Graded Ferroelectrics, Transpacitors, and Transponents (2005, with J.V. Mantese). He served as a co-organizer or session chair in several international conferences and is a member of the American Ceramic Society (ACerS) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).