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DENTON (UNT), Texas—Two University of North Texas faculty members have received $5,000 Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Awards from Oak Ridge Associated Universities. Oak Ridge Associated Universities, or ORAU, is a consortium of 96 major research institutes that advances science and education by providing the universities with partnerships with national laboratories, government agencies, and private industry. ORAU manages the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education for the U.S. Department of Energy.

The Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Awards are given to faculty members with research in engineering and applied science, life sciences, mathematics and computer science, physical sciences and policy management and education. The awards are intended to enrich the research and professional growth of young faculty members and result in new funding opportunities. Universities of faculty members who receive Powe awards are required to match the awards with an additional $5,000 by providing funds for travel, equipment or other assistance for the faculty members’ research.

Dr. Tae-Youl Choi, UNT assistant professor of mechanical and energy engineering, and Dr. Stephen Cooke, assistant professor of chemistry, were among 30 faculty members in the nation to receive this year’s Powe awards.

Choi joined the UNT engineering faculty in 2006. Choi received his doctorate from the University of California at Berkeley in 2002. He was previously an assistant researcher at the Turbomachinery Center in Seoul, Korea , a visiting postdoctoral researcher at the University of California at Berkeley and a lecturer at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich.

On hearing of receiving the Powe award Choi said that the award, “is my first externally funded one since my service at UNT starting in October 2006.

“Even though the amount of the award is small, it means a lot to me in the sense that starting is half the task. It reminds me of the words in the Bible, ‘Though thy beginning was small, yet thy latter end should greatly increase.’ (Job 8:7),” he said.

Cooke joined UNT in 2005 after spending five years as a postdoctoral research assistant at the Department of Chemistry at the University of British Columbia. Cooke received his doctorate and bachelor’s degree from the School of Chemistry at the University of Exeter, in Devon, England . He is the author of more than 40 published journal articles and currently runs a microwave spectrometer laboratory on the UNT campus which provides students the opportunity for a hands on learning experience.

Cooke said, "I am delighted to have won a Ralph E. Powe Award.  The financial support provided by the award will allow me to continue building my research program. In my laboratory I aim to provide a meaningful learning environment for both undergraduate and graduate students.  We learn together through discovery." 

Site last updated on November 13, 2009