11 Texas A&M Faculty Members Earn NSF Early CAREER Awards For 2020

Eleven faculty members at Texas A&M University received Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) awards from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for the foundation’s 2020 funding cycle, the Division of Research announced today.

The NSF CAREER program offers support to early career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization. Activities pursued by early career faculty are expected to build a firm foundation for a lifetime of leadership in integrating education and research.

Each year, the NSF presents an estimated 500 CAREER awards totaling around $250 million to early career faculty at U.S. institutions of higher learning, museums, observatories, research labs, professional societies, and similar organizations associated with research or educational activities.

“Congratulations to our exceptional faculty members for earning this outstanding recognition from the National Science Foundation,” said Vice President for Research Mark A. Barteau. “At Texas A&M, we emphasize leadership in both research and education. With this crucial support from the NSF, these early career faculty members are on their way toward careers that, with the students they will mentor, will advance innovative and effective solutions to the world’s most challenging problems.”

According to Texas A&M colleges and schools, the following faculty members received NSF Early CAREER Awards during the 2020 funding cycle:

College of Architecture
Michelle Annette Meyer, associate professor, Department of Landscape Architecture & Urban Planning

College of Engineering
Faruque Hasan, associate professor, Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering
Ruihong Huang, assistant professor, Department of Computer Science & Engineering
Abhishek Jain, assistant professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering
Stephanie Paal, assistant professor, Zachry Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering
Matt Pharr, assistant professor, J. Mike Walker ’66 Department of Mechanical Engineering
Yang Shen, assistant professor, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering
Ankit Srivastava, assistant professor, Department of Materials Science & Engineering, jointly operated with the College of Science

College of Geosciences
Hiroko Kitajima, assistant professor, Department of Geology & Geophysics
Nicholas Perez, assistant professor, Department of Geology & Geophysics
Julia Reece, assistant professor, Department of Geology & Geophysics

About Research at Texas A&M University: As one of the world’s leading research institutions, Texas A&M is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery, including in science and technology. Research conducted at Texas A&M generated annual expenditures of more than $952 million in fiscal year 2019. Texas A&M ranked in the top 20 of the most recent National Science Foundation Higher Education Research and Development survey based on expenditures of more than $922 million in fiscal year 2018. Texas A&M’s research creates new knowledge that provides basic, fundamental and applied contributions resulting, in many cases, in economic benefits to the state, nation and world. To learn more, visit Research@Texas A&M.