Assistant Professor Julie Liu was awarded the 3M Nontenured Faculty Grant. This highly competitive award recognizes outstanding new faculty for the quality and pertinence of their research and is intended to help them achieve tenure, remain in their academic positions and conduct research. In addition to the honor, the grant provides $15,000/year to support her research on Engineering Protein Polymers with Tunable Material-Based Cues for Directing Stem Cell Differentiation. The funding will continue until tenure is achieved, up to a maximum of three years.