Texas State has record-breaking year for NSF CAREER award recipients

Featured Faculty

Texas State University | December 15, 2021

Texas State University’s growing cohort of National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) grant recipients reached an all-time high in 2021 with four awards.

The CAREER program offers the NSF’s most prestigious awards in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research.

Shetay Ashford-Hanserd, an assistant professor in the Department of Organization, Workforce and Leadership Studies (OWLS) at Texas State received a five-year, $843,000 award which will support Black and Hispanic women entering the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). The grant is funded by the NSF’s Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI) and EHR Core Research (ECR) Programs.

Yoichi Miyahara, an assistant professor in the Department of Physics received a five-year, $500,000 award, which will support Miyahara's research, "Characterization of quantum dot qubits by scannable mechanical resonator." The grant is funded by the NSF’s Condensed Matter Physics (CMP) program in the Division of Materials Research.

David Rodriguez, an assistant professor in the Department of Biology, received a five-year, $800,000 award which will support Rodriguez's research, "Unraveling post-invasion dynamics of the amphibian-killing fungus via rapid genetic diversity assessments of both hosts and pathogens.” The grant is funded by the NSF’s Division of Environmental Biology (DEB) Core Track.

Hiro Lee Tanaka, assistant professor of mathematics, received a five-year, $400,000 grant for future work on symplectic geometry and spectral algebra.  The grant will fund Tanaka’s research project, "Higher Algebra and Symplectic Geometry." It was awarded by the Algebra, Number Theory & Combinatorics and Topology programs of the Division of Mathematical Sciences of NSF.

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