The award recognizes an early-career researcher for outstanding and significant contributions to the fields of surface wettability, phase-change heat transfer and water harvesting. Dai also recently received a five-year, $517,000 Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) award from the National Science Foundation to support his heat transfer research. Faster removal of water droplets clears the surface for more vapor to condense and is key to faster, more efficient cooling systems. About CAREER Awards The Faculty Early Career Development Program supports early-career faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research and excellent education. Earlier this year, the researchers discovered that the surface encourages tiny water droplets to move spontaneously into larger droplets, which is important for more efficient water harvesting.