KU research leaders receive recognition, federal funding to help us better understand and thrive in our world
Water. Plants. Energy. The galactic home of our planet.
Our very existence as human beings relies on the availability and health of these resources, and five early-career scientists at the University of Kansas are doing their part to help us better understand, conserve and improve them. Their leadership has been recognized in recent months with one of the National Science Foundation’s most prestigious honors: the Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award.
The recipients — who collectively received nearly $3.5 million to fund their ongoing research — are:
- Amy Hansen, associate professor of civil, environmental & architectural engineering
- Admin Husic, associate professor of civil, environmental & architectural engineering
- Elisabeth Mills, assistant professor of physics & astronomy
- Kelly Matsunaga, assistant curator of paleobotany and Thomas N. Taylor Assistant Professor of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
- Hartwin Peelaers, associate professor of physics & astronomy
The five-year awards are designed to support “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.”
“This recognition forecasts the significant potential of these KU faculty members, who are poised to shape the future of their fields. Their discoveries and innovations will continue to help us understand and transform our world, and possibly even our galaxy,” said Belinda Sturm, interim vice chancellor for research. “They join 68 previous CAREER award winners across the Lawrence campus — a number that demonstrates KU’s long-term strength fostering impactful research.”
The NSF first issued CAREER awards in 1995. Since then, KU’s Lawrence faculty has included 68 recipients: 27 in the School of Engineering, two in the School of Pharmacy and 39 in schools and departments across the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences.
In addition to addressing problems of worldwide significance, all five of these projects create research opportunities for students from high school through graduate school. This is one of the many ways that KU research enhances the educational mission of the university.
Amy Hansen is studying the relationship between agriculture and the water supply. Following heavy rainfall, nitrogen found in fertilizers runs from farm fields into streams and rivers. This nitrate can harm the nearby ecosystem and quality of the water supply. Luckily, fast-moving rivers can deliver the nitrate to wetlands, which contain vegetation that can sometimes remove the nitrate naturally. Hansen will study the specific conditions needed for wetlands to improve water quality in this scenario.
Admin Husic is developing dynamic, deep learning tools to inform land management practices. Human activity has changed what chemicals make their way into streams and rivers. Husic will collect data from high-frequency aquatic sensors in more than 150 rivers. This data will then be fed into deep learning software to find patterns in how nearby human landscaping affects those streams and rivers. Husic and his lab will link the deep learning tool to other dynamic web applications that can inform land management strategies.
Elisabeth Mills is observing space phenomena to better understand how our galaxy might change in the future. At the center of each galaxy is a supermassive black hole. The black holes pull in gas from their surroundings and grow bigger over time, yet very little is known about how this occurs. Mills will use data from two of the world’s most powerful telescopes — the Very Large Array in New Mexico and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array in Chile — to analyze the supermassive black holes in neighboring galaxies.
Kelly Matsunaga is uncovering how some of the tallest and longest-living organisms on Earth have evolved over the last 300 million years in response to a changing planet. Conifers — which include pines, junipers and redwoods — can teach us about the past and present, including how modern plants might be impacted by ongoing global change. Matsunaga plans to examine living species and fossil records to paint a clearer picture of how conifers have evolved across time and how they fit into the broader history of the ecosystem. This work spans multiple fields, including evolutionary biology, paleontology and developmental biology.
Hartwin Peelaers is designing computer models used to make certain components of zinc-ion batteries. Zinc is much more abundant than the lithium currently used in rechargeable batteries. This is why developing more reliable zinc-ion batteries is essential to making energy storage work as the world transitions toward intermittent energy resources like wind and solar. Peelaers will use computer models to improve the stability of cathode materials that go into zinc-ion batteries. These batteries could be used in both individual electronics and grid-scale energy storage.
Many of these projects exemplify KU’s strength in research focused on earth, energy and environment, one of the university’s five strategic research themes. Work in this area is increasing our understanding of the various dimensions and impacts of climate change on human and natural systems, and developing new technologies and mitigation strategies with an ultimate goal of sustaining the life of the planet and its inhabitants.