Congratulations to Mostafa Nouh, NSF CAREER Award recipient

Nouh is among nine early career researchers in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences to receive the award this year

Mostafa Mouh in his lab.

By Jessica Lyons

Published May 7, 2019

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“By tailoring the properties of metamaterials, we seek to fundamentally alter the way in which mechanical vibrations propagate a structural medium — giving us the ability to guide and steer these vibrations to less vulnerable regions, force them to travel in one direction, or simply absorb them if needed. ”
Mostafa Nouh, Assistant Professor
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

The Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering is proud to announce that assistant professor Mostafa Nouh has been recognized for his excellence in research and education by the National Science Foundation with a CAREER award. The CAREER Award is the National Science Foundation’s most prestigious award in support of junior faculty and provides five years of funding. It is one of the most competitive awards within the NSF.

Nouh’s research project, entitled “Metamaterials as Elastic Rectifiers: Exploiting the Non-reciprocal Mechanics of Time-Periodic Structures,” seeks to design and synthesize structures that manipulate mechanical and acoustic waves (i.e. sound) in unique and unprecedented ways. His focus is on building these structures from a class of carefully engineered and architected materials known as metamaterials.

“By tailoring the properties of metamaterials, we seek to fundamentally alter the way in which mechanical vibrations propagate a structural medium — giving us the ability to guide and steer these vibrations to less vulnerable regions, force them to travel in one direction, or simply absorb them if needed," said Nouh.

Nouh also aspires to raise awareness of the importance of sound and vibrations in our day-to-day life. As part of this project, he will partner with the Boys & Girls Club of Buffalo, which serves local children with disadvantaged socioeconomic circumstances. Through this partnership, Nouh’s team will support the club’s hallmark science program (STEAM) and provide K-12 students with visual demonstrations of resonance and vibrations concepts. Nouh will also continue to provide research experiences for undergraduates through UB's Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) and NY State's Collegiate Science & Technology Program (CSTEP), both of which he has long-standing relationships with.

Nouh joined UB in 2015, where he directs the Sound and Vibrations Laboratory. Previously, he was a postdoctoral research associate at the Smart Materials & Structures Center at the University of Maryland, College Park, where he received his PhD in Mechanical Engineering in 2013. His research interests include structural dynamics, acoustics, smart materials, energy harvesting, metamaterials and periodic structures.

See all of our CAREER award winners here.