Nebraska U earns record number of NSF early-career honors

A record nine Husker researchers earned National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Program awards in 2024, placing the University of Nebraska–Lincoln among the nation’s most successful institutions in earning awards through one of the most prestigious grant programs for rising scholars.

The new institutional record, which amounts to $6.2 million in CAREER funding for Husker faculty, positions Nebraska at the forefront of CAREER success nationally. According to data from the National Center for Education Statistics, Nebraska is one of 25 academic institutions to receive nine or more CAREER awards in 2024. Nebraska is tied with Carnegie Mellon University and Stanford University and outpaces many other leading institutions, including the University of Chicago and Yale University.

Driving this success is Nebraska’s institutional commitment to hiring world-class faculty and providing them with support in advancing their research programs. Nebraska is home to the award-winning NSF CAREER Club, launched by the Office of Research and Innovation in 2017 to help early-career researchers launch their careers as teacher-scholars.

“At Nebraska, we recognize that our faculty are the engine of our university,” said Sherri Jones, interim vice chancellor of research and innovation. “We’re proud that we’ve invested in providing our researchers with top-notch programs, resources and expertise that position them to successfully compete for external grant funding. It’s thrilling to see that despite our relatively small size, our investments are enabling our faculty to be among the most successful in earning CAREER awards this year.” 

Though Nebraska has a smaller pool of tenure-track faculty eligible to apply for CAREER grants, the university remains competitive with Big Ten and national peers. In 2024, Nebraska received about four CAREER awards per 100 tenure-track faculty members, well above the approximate mean of 3.1 at the top 25 CAREER-earning academic institutions.

CAREER awards are among NSF’s most competitive awards, with a funding rate between 14% and 24% depending on the focus area. The awards are a launchpad for pre-tenure faculty to establish research programs, increase competitiveness for future funding and develop outreach and education plans that extend research impact. The integration of scholarship and education is a hallmark of the program, with projects often including educational programs for K-12 students, community outreach and new university coursework.

Programs offered by the Office of Research and Innovation, including the CAREER Club and the Research Development Fellows Program, have contributed to Nebraska’s track record of success.

Participants in the CAREER Club receive mentoring and coaching from Research and Innovation’s research development team, opportunities to meet with NSF program officers, access to an external consultant, one-on-one advice about developing broader impacts, a pre-submission review by an external expert, and time and space dedicated to writing. The club is among the longest-running cohort-based research development programs in the nation. 

Ashley Votruba, a 2024 CAREER award recipient, said the program provided a source of expertise and community as she developed her proposal.

“I think the biggest benefit is the wealth of experience the CAREER Club staff bring to the process,” said Votruba, assistant professor of psychology. “As well as the camaraderie of having multiple faculty in the same room working toward a similar goal.”

Tisha Gilreath Mullen, director of proposal development, said CAREER Club is “intentionally designed to help early-career faculty lean into their passions for research and education and create a well-integrated career trajectory to reach their long-term goals.

“Our vision for CAREER Club is bigger than winning CAREER awards — by supporting faculty in the early stages of their careers, we are helping to shape the leaders of our university’s future research initiatives as well as the extraordinary impacts their research will have on the broader community.”

Nebraska’s 2024 CAREER recipients are listed below.

• Yinsheng Guo, assistant professor of chemistry, is investigating the origins of the properties of metal halide perovskites, a low-cost, highly efficient semiconducting material used for solar energy, solid-state lighting and more. Guo is also devising improved approaches to teaching physical chemistry. 
• Eric Markvicka, Krohn Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering, is developing a manufacturing approach that could propel the fields of soft robotics, stretchable electronics and beyond. It would be the first manufacturing strategy to produce stable mixtures of liquid metals with a wide range of solid particle additives that achieve enhanced properties. 
• Shuai Nie, assistant professor of computing, is unlocking the potential of the terahertz frequency range, which will help meet the ever-growing need for bandwidth and wireless data transmission. She is focused on boosting connectivity in rural areas, where internet access is especially scarce. 
• Grace Panther, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, is developing methods of teaching engineering where strong visuo-spatial skills are less central to success. Her approach may help universities retain more engineering majors and diversify the profession. 
• Kevin Pitt, assistant professor of special education and communication disorders, is reimagining a tool that is critical to helping children with severe speech and physical impairments communicate. He is designing a brain-computer interface with a display that incorporates real-life pictures, which may be more accessible to children with varying skill levels. 
• Arman Roohi, former assistant professor of computing, is advancing work to eliminate smart devices’ dependence on batteries, enhance the intelligence of sensors and diminish their reliance on cloud computing. His “batteryless edge intelligence” model harvests energy from the environment to power machine learning algorithms. 
• Judith Turk, associate professor of natural resources, is pinpointing the degree and pace of soil change in the Great Plains over time, which is critical for developing effective strategies to mitigate and adapt to climate change. She will also launch a new course and engage middle school students by infusing soil science with art and technology. 
• Ashley Votruba, assistant professor of psychology, is advancing understanding of the civil justice gap in the U.S. She is developing a more complete picture of why individuals do not seek legal assistance, particularly people of color and members of low-income households. 
• Christine Wittich, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, is improving the structural engineering of steel grain bins. Her work will improve the resilience of rural infrastructure and communities in the face of natural disasters like windstorms and earthquakes.