10 University of Maryland Faculty Members Win National Science Foundation CAREER Awards

The CAREER awards, which are the NSF’s most prestigious grants for junior faculty, provide five years of financial support

Ten University of Maryland faculty members earned Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) awards from the National Science Foundation in the past fiscal year.

The five-year awards are the NSF’s most prestigious in support of junior faculty members who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and lead advances in the mission of their department or organization. 

The UMD faculty member awardees and their projects are:

Osvaldo Gutierrez, an assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry, received the award for his project, “Computational and Experimental Mechanistic Approach to Iron Catalyst and Reaction Design.”

Gutierrez’s research project focuses on the combined use of computational and experimental tools to study and improve chemical reactions that create bonds between carbon atoms. Currently, such reactions often require rare, expensive and toxic metals. Gutierrez aims to replace these metals with iron, which is abundant, inexpensive and nontoxic.

Peter Nemes, an associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry, received the award for his project, “Discovering Upstream Effectors to Cell Fate Determination.”

Nemes’ project aims to discover changes in small molecules as individual cells form different types of tissues in the frog embryo during development. The data will provide new insights into basic biological processes important for the formation of cells, tissues, organs and organisms.

To read more, visit https://cmns.umd.edu/news-events/features/4222