by Joel Harrison
25. November 2011 08:53
Two researchers from the University of Wisconsin have been given the New Innovator Award by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The award includes a $1.5 million grant for each scientist.
The NIH stated that Douglas Weibel and Hongrui Jiang were granted the award because they are creative investigators proposing extremely innovative projects, which are likely to help create breakthrough technologies.
Jian, who is an electrical and computer engineering associate professor at the UW (also affiliated with the Eye Research Institute), is going to use his grant to develop self-focusing contact lenses for aging patients. Such contact lenses would help presbyopic patients by changing their focal lengths just like video cameras, this way allowing sharp distant and near vision.
The researcher’s project is at an early stage of development, however, and Jiang is very grateful that the National Institutes of Health wanted to support it.
The other UW researcher who was awarded by the NIH, Douglas Weibel, specialises in bacteria and is looking for new ways of creating and destroying their cell walls.
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