Wertheim, Freedman honored with Presidential Early Career Awards

SQI faculty member Jason Wertheim and Center for Bio-Inspired Energy Science investigator Danna Freedman are among five Northwestern University professors selected for the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). President Donald Trump announced the recipients on July 2, and each awardee will be honored at a July 25 ceremony in Washington, D.C.

Wertheim, a transplant surgeon and biomedical engineer, was nominated by the Department of Veterans Affairs for his work on tissue and organ regeneration. The goal of his multidisciplinary research is to bioengineer liver and kidney tissue to treat chronic organ failure, which could alleviate the shortage of donor organs suitable for transplant.

Freedman, a chemist nominated by the National Science Foundation, received the PECASE for her work on qubits—the smallest unit in quantum computing. Developing computers with these objects would allow scientists to understand electron transfer in new ways, enabling the creation of novel materials for renewable energy.

Read the full Northwestern press release.