Children will make fewer trips to the doctor’s office for dreaded booster shots as the result of one ISU professor’s research.

Balaji Narasimhan, associate professor of chemical engineering, was named one of the world’s 100 Top Young Innovators for 2003 by Technology Review, a publication of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“In the U.S., typically kids receive 12 to 16 injections before the age of six,” Narasimhan said. “We are designing a single dose system.

“The shots are still painful, but they get less of them. Booster shots build up immunity … we capture that with one shot.”

The 100 innovators are individuals less than 35 years of age who have made significant contributions to transforming the nature of technology. The editors of Technology Review and an elite panel of judges choose nominees for the award. Narasimhan was honored Sept. 24 and 25 at the Emerging Technologies Conference at MIT.

“It is such nice recognition to have for my students, since they are the ones who do all of the work,” he said.

Narasimhan specializes in the design of biodegradable polymers and part of his research focuses on using these polymers to prevent adverse reactions from injections that contain multiple vaccines.

Charles Glatz, professor and chairman of chemical engineering, said Narasimhan is also researching the effectiveness of polymers as adhesives on aerospace equipment.

Glatz explained Narasimhan is “part of the bigger picture” of what is occurring in the College of Engineering.

“[The award] is a very visible recognition on a national scale that there are good things going on here and good things going on in his lab,” he said.

Glatz said achievements like Narasimhan’s encourage people to come to Iowa State.

“It shows that faculty can succeed here and that graduate students can be involved in interesting and stimulating projects,” he said.

Narasimhan’s wife, Surya Mallapragada, associate professor of chemical engineering, was named a 100 Top Innovator by Technology Review for 2002. He said receiving the award his wife did last year completed the picture.

“We found out that we were the first couple [to have both received the award] — it was a nice feeling,” he said.

Narasimhan received his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay and his doctorate from Purdue University. After holding a postdoctoral fellowship position at MIT, he became an assistant professor at Rutgers University.

While he was in New Jersey at Rutgers, Mallapragada was working at Iowa State. Hoping to shorten the distance between them, both she and Narasimhan applied at each other’s departments and both received job offers.

“It was nice to be wanted, but one of us had to move,” he said. “We weighed the options, and Iowa State came out on top.”

After transferring to Iowa State, Narasimhan said he has benefited from being able to do joint research with other faculty members, such as veterinary researchers and biochemists.

“The environment at Iowa State is very supportive of collaborative work,” he said. “It is very encouraging.”