UA Metallurgical Engineering Professor Selected for Professional Development Award

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Dr. Nitin Chopra, assistant professor of metallurgical and materials engineering at The University of Alabama, was recently selected for the 2010 TMS Electronic, Magnetic and Photonic Materials Division Young Leader Professional Development Award.

Chopra is the third faculty member in UA’s department of metallurgical and materials engineering to receive this award.

Chopra has been honored and published numerous times for his research and recently received a National Science Foundation grant award for grapheme-related nanomaterials research. His other honors include the Chair’s Fund Grant for the Gordon Research Conference and the Oak Ridge National Lab Scholarship.

Chopra received his bachelor’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur, India, and he completed his doctorate at the University of Kentucky. After postdoctoral experience in the department of chemistry at the University of Kentucky, he joined The University of Alabama as an assistant professor in 2009.

The Young Leaders Program was created in 1993 to encourage young professionals to increase their involvement in The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society, or TMS. The Electronic, Magnetic and Photonic Materials Division of TMS promotes the development of its members through programming, publications and continuing education. It aims to fulfill the technical, professional and organizational needs of its members through their own input.

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.