Assistant Professor Alexandra Velian has received a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation. The CAREER (Faculty Early Career Development) Program is a Foundation-wide program that “offers the National Science Foundation’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 within the context of the mission of their organizations.”
Professor Velian’s research focuses on developing synthetic strategies to access new generations of molecular and heterogeneous inorganic catalysts and electronic materials, to provide fundamental understanding of the chemical processes occurring at the surface of semiconductor materials. The aim of her NSF CAREER proposal, CAREER: Elucidating and Harnessing Metal-Support Interactions using Designer Nanoclusters as Functional Models, is to prepare small molecule species that can be dissolved in solution, which may improve the selectivity, stability, and tunability of the reactions they promote. This will facilitate understanding of how reactions at a single metal atom occur, which may then be used to determine basic steps to improve important industrial-scale chemical conversions. In addition to the scientific goals, the educational plan supports Professor Velian’s commitment to promote diversity, inclusion and equity in science through an initiative that integrates mentorship, engagement in research, and immersion into the research community, and to engage and educate the broader scientific and non-scientific community about the significance of heterogeneous catalysis on industrial processes.
For more information about this NSF CAREER Award, please visit the award website.
For more information about Professor Velian and her research, please visit her faculty page and research group website.