Five researchers at the University of Notre Dame earned a Faculty Early Career Development Program Award (CAREER), the most prestigious award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for early-career faculty.
Those who win 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, according to the NSF. Each awardee at Notre Dame received more than half a million dollars in funding to support their research.
“We are thrilled to celebrate this latest cohort of CAREER Award recipients. Their forward-thinking research reflects Notre Dame's unwavering commitment to discovery that serves the common good,” said , the John and Catherine Martin Family Vice President for Research and professor in the . “We appreciate that the National Science Foundation is supporting these high-impact research projects.”
Below are Notre Dame’s 2026 awardees, along with brief descriptions from their abstracts:
in the College of Science, will pioneer approaches to harness the interaction between light and molecules to power the next generation of energy and quantum technologies with his project, “Novel Theoretical Tools for Dynamics of Interacting Light-Matter Systems.” Light and molecules are constantly exchanging energy at the quantum scale across complex environments, such as inside tiny mirrors or near metal surfaces. His research group will develop methods that allow scientists to understand and predict how molecules behave in these complex environments.
in the College of Science, is seeking to understand the earliest chemical reactions and molecules involved in the first living cells for his project, “Reconstructing Primordial Life of the Lost RNA World.” Early life is thought to have used RNA as its genetic material as well as its enzymes. His research group aims to understand how RNA molecules could have facilitated the emergence of the first self-replicating cells. This project addresses this fundamental question by building simplified models of primitive cells, or protocells, in the laboratory.
in the College of Engineering, will investigate cancer with her research, “Mechanisms of Tumor Growth-Induced Immunomechanical Dysfunction.” The work is part of a newer area of research called immunomechanics, which lies at the intersection of mechanobiology and immunology. Her project investigates how these physical forces interfere with the ability of immune cells to find and destroy cancer cells, ultimately allowing tumors to grow unchecked. By uncovering how mechanical forces disrupt the immune system, this work addresses a fundamental gap in understanding how biology and physics interact in human health.
in the College of Science, will develop new chemical measurement tools that seek to help scientists detect and distinguish closely related small molecules in complex environments with his work, “Integrating Nanoconfined Interfaces and Aptamer Switches for Autonomous, Electrochemical Imaging of Chemical Analogs.” Many important molecules in medicine, biology, environmental monitoring, and manufacturing differ only slightly in structure, making them difficult to measure selectively in real time. The project would create electrochemical sensor platforms that use nanoscale materials and molecular recognition switches to identify chemical analogs without relying on large laboratory instruments.
in the College of Science, will study new types of materials, known as moiré materials, created by stacking extremely thin layers of matter with precise alignment and leading to unusual and potentially useful electronic behavior in his project, “Towards a Unified Optical View of Strong Correlation in Moiré Quantum Matter.” These new types of materials can switch between conducting, insulating, and superconducting states — properties that are important for future technologies but remain poorly understood. The research combines optical and electrical measurements to probe how these materials respond to energy and heat at very small scales, providing insight into how their internal structure governs their macroscopic behavior.
Established in 1995, NSF CAREER Awards currently support 34 active research projects at the University of Notre Dame. To learn more about the program, visit the .
Originally published by at on August 05, 2026.