Four Engineers Recognized with UC Early Career Research Excellence Awards

Four early career engineering faculty receive research awards, clockwise from top left, Ty Christoff-Tempesta, Matthew Dean, Christopher Ignacio Olivares Martinez and Fei Xia.

June 24, 2026 - The University of California has selected six UC Irvine faculty as recipients of the inaugural Early Career Faculty Research Excellence Awards; four are from the UCI Samueli School of Engineering.

The competitive program recognizes outstanding early career scholars whose innovative research demonstrates exceptional promise and impact. Each assistant professor will receive a $50,000 research award. These are the engineering faculty awardees and their projects:

Ty Christoff-Tempesta, assistant professor of materials science and engineering, is developing sustainable and circular plastics alternatives designed to deconstruct and reassemble materials for a project called Unzip, Rebuild, Repeat.

Matthew Dean, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, is working on multilocation electric vehicle charging coordination, cost savings and emission reduction through aggregator cooperation.

Christopher Ignacio Olivares Martinez, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, is engineering a new paradigm to discover microorganisms that fully biodegrade forever chemicals (PFAS).

Fei Xia, assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science, is researching a live biopsy microscope that could potentially provide label-free, real-time disease diagnosis for accessible precision medicine.

– Lori Brandt

 

 

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