VCU School of Engineering professor receives special “creativity award” from National Science Foundation

By Anne Buckley

A Virginia Commonwealth University School of Engineering professor has received a “special creativity award” from the National Science Foundation to further explore his discovery of a novel material that becomes water repellent when wet.

Kenneth J. Wynne, Ph.D., a professor in the VCU School of Engineering’s Department of Chemical Engineering, received a two-year extension of a previous grant with a special consideration that recognizes the most creative investigators for their work, according to the National Science Foundation.

“These awards are given every year to a very small number of our grantees, fewer than 5 percent,” said Andrew J. Lovinger, director of the Polymers Program at the National Science Foundation’s Division of Materials Research. “The awards offer investigators the opportunity to pursue adventurous, high-risk opportunities in the general research area that they are working in, but does not bind them to the original proposal for which they were funded.”

Wynne earlier this year published the results of his discovery of an enigmatic polymer that is hydrophilic, or water loving, when dry, and hydrophobic, or water resistant, when wet; opposite of most materials. The discovery sets the stage for advances in engineering, medicine and diagnostics.

“I am really gratified to receive this honor, which reflects the National Science Foundation’s confidence in my work and that of my students at VCU,” Wynne said. “I look forward to continuing our work in these ‘strange, soft surfaces.’”

Michael H. Peters, chair of the school’s chemical engineering department, said the award reflects well on both Wynne’s work and the research being conducted at the School of Engineering.

“We are very excited that Dr. Wynne has been recognized and will be able to further explore a discovery that has such a wide range of applications in many fields,” Peters said.