Dr. Dmitri Perkins with CACS has just received from the National Science Foundation (NSF), a Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award, which is deemed the most competitive and prestigious award from NSF to young faculty members in all science and engineering fields. This five-year award of $400,000 enables him to investigate into the design and implementation of large-scale ad hoc networking systems able to support heterogeneous traffic types involves various factors that interact in a complex manner. This research, according to Dr. Perkins, includes two main research thrusts, which together aims to acquire a deeper understanding of the fundamental performance, scaling properties, and tradeoffs. His award is among several CAREER awards given by the NSF Network Systems program in 2005.

The CAREER program is a Foundation-wide activity that offers the National Science Foundation's most prestigious awards for new faculty members. It recognizes and supports the early career-development activities of those teacher-scholars. According to the NSF, "CAREER awards support exceptionally promising college and university junior faculty who are committed to the integration of research and education," says NSF Director Rita Colwell. "We recognize these faculty members, new in their careers, as most likely to become the academic leaders of the 21st Century." CAREER awardees are selected on the basis of creative, career-development plans that effectively integrate research and education within the context of the mission of their institution. Such plans should build a firm foundation for a lifetime of integrated contributions to research and education. The award places emphasis on high-quality research and novel education initiatives. , which is deemed the most competitive and prestigious award from NSF to young faculty members in all science and engineering fields.