Jindal Shah of Oklahoma State University has been awarded the prestigious National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development, or CAREER, Program award.
Shah is an assistant professor of chemical engineering at the university’s Stillwater campus. He was bestowed the honor along with fellow assistant professor in the chemical engineering school Ashlee Ford Versypt, a media release said.
The CAREER award is NSF’s most prestigious award in support of early-career faculty. The university’s chemical engineering school now has five faculty members that have received this award in the past 14 years, the university said.
Shah received his doctorate from the University of Notre Dame and did postdoctoral research at Ohio State University. The Indian American academic returned to Notre Dame as a research assistant professor. He joined Oklahoma State University in 2014.
Shah’s project, entitled “CAREER: Computation-Enabled Rational Design of Cytochrome P450 for Ionic Liquid Biodegradation,” has been awarded $514,262 over the next five years.
Shah’s proposed research aims to generate foundational knowledge and mathematical models used to numerically study the behavior of a complex system.
This information can be extended to engineer enzymes for biodegradation of novel solvents known as ionic liquids, which are salt in a liquid state, according to the university.
The end goal will be to train high school chemistry and biology teachers and aspiring teachers from the OSUTeach program in using molecular editing and visualization tools and teaching undergraduate students how to utilize computation and visualization in their courses, it said.
“[Shah] is quickly establishing himself as a leader in the field, as he was also recently named as one of 25 ‘Emerging Investigators’ in Chemical Thermodynamics by the Journal of Chemical and Engineering Data,” said Heather Fahlenkamp, professor and interim head of the chemical engineering school. “The NSF CAREER Award is very well deserved, and I’m looking forward to his continued success.”
The CAREER Program offers the NSF’s most prestigious awards in support of 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.
Activities pursued by early-career faculty should build a firm foundation for a lifetime of leadership in integrating education and research.