Postdoctoral fellow Calin Plesa (Sri Kosuri’s group) wins prestigious Burroughs Wellcome Fund (BWF) Career Award at the Scientific Interface (CASI).
Chosen from a total applicant pool of 287, Plesa is among 11 scientists who are being honored for combining biology with the physical sciences and engineering toward medical breakthroughs. The award will allow Plesa to focus his research on the protein engineering of histidine kinase receptors for various biosensing applications.
Totaling $500,000, the award will be distributed in equal installments over the next five years. Its purpose is to help transition newly minted Ph.D.’s from post-doctoral work into first faculty positions.
Plesa received a bachelor of applied science, engineering physics in 2007 from Simon Fraser University, and an MSc in nanoscience and nanotechnology from Delft University of Technology in 2009 and Chalmers University of Technology in 2010. Under the direction of Professor Cees Dekker at Delft University of Technology, he received a Ph.D. in bionanoscience in 2015. Plesa joined Professor Sri Kosuri’s group at UCLA as a postdoctoral fellow in 2015 and developed a new multiplex gene synthesis technique called DropSynth.
The Burroughs Wellcome Fund is a private, independent foundation dedicated to advancing the biomedical sciences by supporting research and other educational endeavors.
