Featured EFRI achievements
Welcome to EFRI
The Office of Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation (EFRI) strives to keep the nation at the forefront of engineering discoveries. A part of the Engineering Directorate of the National Science Foundation (NSF), EFRI serves a critical role in pursuing timely investments in creative ideas that can push engineering research beyond its apparent limits.
Honors
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President Barack Obama awarded the U.S. government’s highest honor for science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers to EFRI researcher Sridevi Sarma of Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Sarma joined President Obama and other researchers at a White House ceremony in August 2012 to honor their Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers. The award recognized Dr. Sarma’s work toward transforming the control of electrical deep brain stimulation for the treatment of Parkinson's disease, and for innovative educational and outreach activities including mentoring of women in science and engineering.
In the Media
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A recent episode of NSF "Science Now" featured the discovery of a new screening test for ovarian cancer by a team led by Vadim Backman at Northwestern University. The video segment, which can be viewed here, explained that the EFRI-backed team developed new light-scattering technology that helps detect early signs of cancer in cells outside the tumor site. It could lead to the first early screening method for ovarian cancer, now one of the most deadly forms of cancer for women.
