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NSF Career Awards

Supporting early-career faculty through NSF’s most prestigious research award

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The NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program is the National Science Foundation’s most prestigious award for early-career faculty who demonstrate the potential to serve as academic role models in both research and education. The program supports faculty at the outset of their careers as they build a strong foundation for long-term leadership in their fields.

CAREER awards provide sustained support for innovative research projects that are tightly integrated with educational activities, encouraging investigators to advance knowledge while shaping the next generation of scientists, engineers, and scholars. Awardees are selected based on the strength of their research vision, their commitment to education, and the broader impacts of their work.

At UCF, NSF CAREER awardees are advancing impactful research, mentoring students, and contributing to solutions that address national and global challenges.

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Recent Recipients of NSF CAREER Awards

Sidong Lei

Department of Materials Science and Engineering

NanoScience Technology Center (NTSC)

Project Title: Van der Waals Semiconductor Integration via Surface and Interface Tailoring

Project Award: A total of $516,085 over five years, with $449,136 over three years at UCF

Kevin Moran

Department of Computer Science

Cyber Security and Privacy Cluster

Project Title: Enhanced UI Engineering via Automated Semantic Screen Understanding

Project Award: $582,308 over five years

Truong Nghiem

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Project Title: Composite Physics-Informed Learning of Dynamics Systems

Project Award: $477,585 over five years

Wen Shen

Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE)

NanoScience Technology Center

Project Title: Manufacturing of Rare Earth Permanent Magnets via Three-dimensional Printing and Decomposition of Hydrogels

Project Award: $697,264 over five years

Hao Zheng

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Project Title: A Scalable, Polymorphic, and Efficient Architecture for Irregular and Sparse Computations (APEX)

Project Award: $550,000 over five years

Past NSF CAREER Awardees

YearNameCollegeDirectorateGrant
1996Rebecca ParsonsEngineering and Computer ScienceCSE$200,000.00
1996Kay StanneyEngineering and Computer ScienceCSE$342,876.00
1996Peter DelfyettOptics and PhotonicsENG $500,000.00
1996Amir MirmiranEngineering and Computer ScienceENG$259,250.00
1997Lucille GiannuzziEngineering and Computer ScienceMPS$399,998.00
1998Guifang LiOptics and PhotonicsENG$282,755.00
2000John WeishampelSciencesBIO$476,160.00
2002Jane WatermanSciencesBIO$582,283.00
2002Deron WaltersSciencesMPS$94,671.00
2002Yongho SohnAdvanced Materials Processing and Analysis CenterMPS$393,677.00
2003Rajan VaidyanathanAdvanced Materials Processing and Analysis CenterMPS$369,763.00
2003Mark HeinrichEngineering and Computer ScienceCSE$80,946.00
2004Eric JohnsonOptics and PhotonicsENG$399,605.00
2004Hyoung Jin ChoEngineering and Computer ScienceENG$399,898.00
2005Zheng ShenEngineering and Computer ScienceENG$400,000.00
2005Beatriz Roldan CuenyaSciencesMPS$553,476.00
2005Bobby JeanpierreCommunity Innovation and EducationEHR$711,855.00
2006Eric PetersenEngineering and Computer ScienceENG$454,962.00
2006Qun HuoSciencesMPS$320,304.00
2007Pieter KikOptics and PhotonicsENG$400,000.00
2007Enrique del BarcoArts and HumanitiesMPS$537,000.00
2007Yan WangEngineering and Computer ScienceENG$400,000.00
2008Pawel WocjanEngineering and Computer ScienceCSE$416,000.00
2008Saiful KhondakerNanoScience Technology CenterENG$439,948.00
2008Stephen KueblerOptics and PhotonicsMPS$579,837.00
2008Huiyang ZhouEngineering and Computer ScienceCSE$158,856.00
2008Andre GesquiereSciencesENG$401,995.00
2008Lei ZhaiSciencesMPS$441,000.00
2008Nina OrlovskayaEngineering and Computer ScienceMPS$475,161.00
2009Joseph LaViolaEngineering and Computer ScienceCSE$539,776.00
2009Gita SukthankarCenter for Research in Computer VisionCSE$434,943.00
2009Xun GongEngineering and Computer ScienceENG$400,000.00
2010Masahiro IshigamiSciencesMPS$562,825.00
2010Jun WangEngineering and Computer ScienceCSE$454,909.00
2011Leslie DeChurchSciencesSBE$425,000.00
2011Ming SuNanoScience Technology CenterENG$234,467.00
2012Sasan FathpourOptics and PhotonicsENG$400,000.00
2012Haiyan HuEngineering and Computer ScienceBIO$684,172.00
2013Hojun SongSciencesBIO$489,725.00
2013Azadeh VosoughiEngineering and Computer ScienceCSE$324,517.00
2014Nazanin RahnavardEngineering and Computer ScienceENG$334,832.00
2014Jayan ThomasNanoScience Technology CenterENG$450,000.00
2015Mercedeh KhajavikhanOptics and PhotonicsENG$500,000.00
2015Weiwei DengEngineering and Computer ScienceENG$500,000.00
2015James HarperSciencesMPS$494,981.00
2015Basak GurelSciencesMPS$400,000.00
2016George AtiaEngineering and Computer ScienceCSE$573,321.00
2016Mingjie LinEngineering and Computer ScienceCSE$541,321.00
2016Liqiang WangEngineering and Computer ScienceCSE$262,848.00
2017Shawn PutnamEngineering and Computer ScienceENG$510,000.00
2017Yaser FallahEngineering and Computer ScienceCSE$360,375.00
2018Jacquelyn ChiniSciencesEHR$760,716.00
2018Xiaohu XiaSciencesMPS$426,706.00
2019Laurene TetardSciencesMPS$403,966.00
2019Madhab NeupaneSciencesMPS$414,209.00
2019Tania RoyNanoScience Technology CenterENG$516,000.00
2019Pamela WisniewskiEngineering and Computer ScienceCSE$309,102.00
2019Xiaoming YuOptics and PhotonicsENG$570,000.00
2019Zhongzhou ChenSciencesEHR$465,295.00
2020Andrew DickersonEngineering and Computer ScienceENG$500,000.00
2020Junjian QiEngineering and Computer ScienceENG$394,319.00
2020Ranajay GhoshEngineering and Computer ScienceENG$511,515.00
2020Akihiro KushimaAdvanced Materials Processing and Analysis CenterENG$513,392.00
2020Kelly KiblerEngineering and Computer ScienceGEO$206,408.00
2020Paul GazzilloEngineering and Computer ScienceCSE$161,511.00
2020Mihai VaidaSciencesMPS$544,735.00
2020Xiaofeng FengSciencesMPS$636,144.00
2020Ryan McMahanEngineering and Computer ScienceCSE$289,194.00
2020Yasuyuki NakajimaSciencesMPS$212,270.00
2020Helen HuangEngineering and Computer ScienceENG$411,010.00
2020Charissa de BekkerSciencesBIO$458,294.00
2020Ellen KangNanoScience Technology CenterENG$500,718.00
2021Samik BhattacharyaEngineering and Computer ScienceENG$397,069.00
2021Robert Steward Jr.Engineering and Computer ScienceENG$500,000.00
2021Yanjie FuEngineering and Computer ScienceCSE$359,946.00
2021Salvador Almagro-MorenoMedicineBIO$782,351.00
2021Lorraine LeonEngineering and Computer ScienceMPS$104,558.00
2022Tengfei JiangAdvanced Materials Processing and Analysis CenterENG $500,000.00
2022YeonWoong JungEngineering and Computer Science/NanoScience Technology CenterENG $562,713.00
2022Brian KimEngineering and Computer ScienceENG $500,000.00
2022Kawai KwokEngineering and Computer ScienceENG $500,486.00
2022Fei LiuEngineering and Computer ScienceENG$494,348.00
2022Mehdi RazaviMedicineENG $606,413.00
2022Sharma ThankachanEngineering and Computer ScienceCSE $595,271.00
2022Thomas WahlEngineering and Computer ScienceENG $550,000.00
2023Kenle ChenEngineering and Computer ScienceENG$500,000.00
2023Zhaomiao (Walter) GuoEngineering and Computer ScienceENG$525,781.00
2023Luigi PerottiEngineering and Computer ScienceENG$520,769.00

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