A Mathematician and a Biomedical Engineer Win 2020 Excellence in Research Awards

Caption: Senior Vice Provost for Research Atam Dhawan (far left) and Chair of the Board of Overseers awards committee Emil Herkert (far right) with the 2020 Excellence in Research award winners, (left to right) Bryan Pfister, chairman of the Department of Biomedical Engineering (standing in for Namas Chandra) and Lou Kondic.

Namas Chandra, a biomedical engineer who develops new ways to understand and prevent traumatic brain injuries, and Lou Kondic, an expert in fluid dynamics and pioneer in the growing thin film sector, are the winners of the Board of Overseers (BOO) Excellence in Research award for 2020.

Atam Dhawan, senior vice provost for research, called the two awardees, who are distinguished professors in their respective departments, “exceptionally impactful researchers.”

“Both Dr. Namas Chandra and Dr. Lou Kondic have not only made fundamental discoveries in their fields, the innovative systems and technologies they created to conduct their basic, applied and translational research have proved to be significant resources for the scientific community and the foundations for future breakthroughs,” he said at the May medal ceremony, which had been delayed for several months by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Chandra focuses on fundamental questions about blast-induced brain injuries, such as whether soldiers exposed to multiple blasts sustain these injuries will become susceptible down the road to other neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.

He has recently demonstrated conclusively, for the first time, that pure shock waves can cause concussions and that repeated exposures to them do pose serious risk factors for these diseases. In other discoveries, he has determined that brain injuries caused by blasts are diffuse, setting them apart from the more localized traumas sustained in car accidents, and may compromise the organ’s protective shield, the bloodbrain barrier, and induce neuroinflammation.

Chandra also examines current protective measures — helmets, body armor, vehicles and combat care — to assess their ability to prevent brain injuries. He has shown, for example, that certain helmets without tight padding can increase a soldier’s vulnerability from a newly identified effect he terms “shock focusing.” He is examining biomechanical and biochemical mechanisms to promote brain safety, as well as innovative diagnostic methods and therapies to advance treatment.

In his Center for Injury Bio-Mechanics, Materials and Medicine, which is humming with undergraduate and graduate student researchers, Chandra conducts many of his experiments in a laboratory-scale shock tube that can exactly simulate blasts in the field set off by hand-held grenades, pipe and truck bombs. His patented equipment, funded by the U.S. Department of Defense, is considered a gold-standard testing device and has been replicated at the U.S. Army Proving Grounds in Aberdeen to test future products for soldiers.

Before awarding his medal, BOO member Arthur Kapoor noted, “Dr. Chandra should be called a legend.”

Kondic’s groundbreaking work in thin films, composed of materials ranging from liquid crystals to ferromagnetic fluids to liquid metals, is key to innovations in numerous technology-enhanced products, such as solar panels, industrial coatings and liquid crystal displays. He recently devised a new computational model, for example, that is capable of tracking how extreme heat impacts the evolution of thin metal films on thermally conductive solid substrates such as the silicon used in photovoltaic panels.

His lab’s discovery of major thermal and fluid dynamic factors that drive the evolution of metal films, including alloys involving more than one metal, is designed to improve their radiation-absorbing properties. By directing the way nanoparticles arrange themselves on top of silicon, he aims to make panels both more efficient and cost-effective.

Also an expert in granular flows, Kondic’s interdisciplinary research into the dynamics of particulate systems in a range of conditions — vibrated, sheared and subject to impact — has produced novel insights with a potentially transformative impact on the study of natural phenomena such as earthquakes, landslides and meteor impacts, as well as industrial processes. They include the manufacture, handling, packaging and transport of granular products, ranging from dry powders to dense suspensions.

He has recently collaborated with NJIT’s Boris Khusid, a professor of chemical and materials engineering, and researchers from NASA, New York University and Streamline Automation on space-bound studies at the International Space Station. Their experiments explore the fundamental science of colloids — microscopic “building blocks” particles for materials on Earth that are central to the composition of everything from milk and tea to household electronics and 3D-printing technology.

“I didn’t do this myself – it is not possible for one person to approach a problem from all different sides, and so I want to acknowledge my collaborators and students both at NJIT and other places,” Kondic said, upon receiving his medal. He added, “I think this is the first award going to the Department of Mathematical Sciences and I hope it inspires even more interdisciplinary and collaborative projects with colleagues in other departments.”

Pointing to the explosive growth in NJIT’s research, NJIT President Joel Bloom commented, “You must have faculty who can do research, who are interested and who are committed, and very importantly, have the ability to talk about the applications of their research.

“It’s been an absolute blast to be participating and looking at the great research and great potential of this institution,” said Emil Herkert, chair emeritus of the Board of Overseers, chair of the EIR awards committee and one of the founders of the event in 2008. “The work undertaken by researchers at NJIT provides a foundation for others to build on.”