Santiago Solares, mechanical engineering assistant professor, is the latest Clark School faculty member to receive a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award.

Solares, an expert in multi-scale simulations ranging from quantum to continuum mechanics, nanorobotics, surface characterization methods (primarily atomic force microscopy and chemical force microscopy), and surface reconstruction and functionalization, won $400,000 for his project, titled "Sub-NanoNewton Force Spectroscopy in Liquids with Dual-Frequency-Modulation AFM."

Solares's project will increase the usefulness of atomic force microscopy (AFM) in studying fragile biological specimens in aqueous environments. His work will contribute to the fields of nanofabrication and nanomanufacturing, especially as they apply to cancer research, genomics and cell reconstruction.