Dr. William L. Hughes, Assistant Professor of Materials Science & Engineering, joined Boise State University (BSU) in August 2008. His research objectives are to understand, quantify, control, and communicate how complex nanostructures/systems arise from simple yet discrete building blocks.

Steadily working towards this goal, Dr. Hughes holds a B.S. in Materials Science & Engineering with a minor in Bioengineering from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech). He also holds a Ph.D. in Materials Science & Engineering with a minor in Physical, Chemical, and Biological Sensors/Probes from the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). His Ph.D. thesis explored the synthesis, characterization, discovery, and modeling of zinc oxide nanostructures for piezoelectric applications. In conjunction with his Ph.D., Dr. Hughes was also sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to partner with and teach at TECH High, a metro-Atlanta charter high school (www.techhighschool.org).

Upon completion of his Ph.D., he was then dually-appointed as a National Academy of Engineering (NAE), Center for the Advancement of Scholarship on Engineering Education (CASEE) Post-Doctoral Fellow (www.nae.edu/Programs/CASEE.aspx), as well as an Assistant Professor of Materials Engineering at the California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly), San Luis Obispo (www.mate.calpoly.edu). Dr. Hughes is the recipient of a series of awards and fellowships that include:

1. Cal Poly President's Community Service Award in 2008,
   
2. Inaugural Paul Bonderson Materials Fellowship in 2007,
   
3. National Science Foundation (NSF) Pan American Advanced Study Institute (PASI) Tools and Techniques in Nanoscience Fellowship in 2006,
   
4. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Eugene P. Wigner Fellowship Program international finalist in 2006,
   
5. National Science Foundation (NSF) GK-12 Student and Teacher Enhancement Partnership (STEP) Fellowship in 2006 and 2005,
   
6. National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network (NNIN) Executive Student Director of “Nano@Tech” in 2005,
   
7. Office of Naval Research (ONR) Molecular Design Institute (MDI) Fellowship in 2003,
   
8. Georgia Tech (GT) External Advisory Board Fellowship in 2001, and
   
9. Buddy McCracken Award in 1996.