Farshid Alambeigi, assistant professor in the Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering, will receive the 2022 National Institutes of Health Director’s New Innovator Award.
The High-Risk, High-Reward Research program, supported by the Common Fund at the National Institutes of Health has awarded 103 new research grants to support highly innovative scientists who propose visionary and broadly impactful meritorious behavioral and biomedical research projects. The 103 awards total approximately $285 million in support from the institutes, centers, and offices across NIH over five years beginning in 2022, pending the availability of funds.
The High-Risk, High-Reward Research program manages four awards, including two awards specifically for researchers in the early stages of their careers. These four awards include:
- The NIH Director’s Pioneer Award, established in 2004, challenges investigators at all career levels to pursue new research directions and develop groundbreaking, high-impact approaches to a broad area of biomedical, behavioral, or social science.
- The NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, established in 2007, supports unusually innovative research from early career investigators who are within 10 years of their final degree or clinical residency and have not yet received an NIH R01 or equivalent grant.
- The NIH Director’s Transformative Research Award, established in 2009, promotes cross-cutting, interdisciplinary approaches and is open to individuals and teams of investigators who propose research that could potentially create or challenge existing paradigms.
- The NIH Director’s Early Independence Award, established in 2011, provides an opportunity to support exceptional junior scientists who have recently received their doctoral degree or completed their medical residency to skip traditional post-doctoral training and move immediately into independent research positions.
Dr. Alambeigi is also a core faculty member in Texas Robotics. He received his Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering (2019) and MSE degree in Robotics (2017) from Johns Hopkins University. Before starting his Ph.D. in 2014, he received an M.Sc. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Sharif University of Technology in Iran (2012). His research in Advanced Robotics Technologies for Surgery (ARTS) lab aims to partner dexterous and intelligent robots with clinicians to promote and facilitate semi-autonomous/autonomous minimally-invasive surgical interventions. In addition to the NIH New Innovator Award, he is one the 2019 Siebel Scholars in the Bioengineering field and recipients of the NIH NIBIB Trailblazer Award in 2020.
