Engineering Professor at UA Receives Young Leader Award

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Dr. Nitin Chopra, assistant professor in The University of Alabama College of Engineering, has been selected by The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society as the 2011 Young Leader International Scholar.

As part of the honor, Chopra will represent TMS at the Japan Institute of Metals annual spring meeting March 25-27 at Tokyo City University.

Chopra, who is on faculty in the college’s department of metallurgical and materials engineering, will be presented his award citation at the TMS 2011 annual meeting and exhibition Feb. 27-March 3 in San Diego, Calif.

Chopra’s research is centered on nano/microfabrication, nanostructure growth, materials chemistry, and materials characterization methods. It encompasses the importance of a thorough understanding of the fundamentals of metallurgy and materials science in designing novel nanomaterials and their applications.

In the past year, Chopra has published 10 peer-reviewed publications and is currently completing several others. His research articles often include undergraduate students as co-authors.

Within TMS, Chopra received the 2010 Electronic, Magnetic, Photonic Materials Division Young Leader Award, and he will represent the society at the Emerging Leader Alliance Conference in Denver, Colo.

In 1837, The University of Alabama became one of the first five universities in the nation to offer engineering classes. Today, UA’s fully accredited College of Engineering has more than 2,700 students and more than 100 faculty. In the last eight years, students in the College have been named USA Today All-USA College Academic Team members, Goldwater scholars, Hollings scholars and Portz scholars.