Five LSU Researchers Win Highly Prestigious NSF CAREER Awards

Five LSU faculty members have been awarded the National Science Foundation’s most competitive grant for early-career researchers. Awardees are chosen because of their potential to serve as lifelong academic role models in research and education, as well as their ability to support their organizations’ missions. At LSU, that mission is the Scholarship First Agenda to elevate lives through research and student success in agriculture, biomedicine, coast, defense, and energy.

“With five NSF CAREER awards this year, LSU is well on its way to become a top 50 research university by attracting and developing top talent. Our commitment to these rising research stars is to give them, and their students, the best possible LSU research experience, so they can focus on making discoveries and solving problems for Louisiana and the world.”

Robert Twilley, LSU Vice President of Research and Economic Development

All CAREER awards have education and outreach components, which provide meaningful research experiences for students and help ensure a future pipeline of highly talented scientists and engineers.

Learn more about the winning faculty and their research below.

Sviatoslav Baranets is an assistant professor of chemistry in the LSU College of Science. His project, “Heteroanionicity by Design: Developing Complex Narrow-Bandgap Oxypnictide Semiconducting Materials for Thermoelectric Applications,” has been awarded $690,000 to help solve global energy challenges by exploring new ways to convert waste heat into electricity.

 

 

 

Last year, Baranets won the Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award from Oak Ridge Associated Universities for his work on the structural and electronic properties of Zintl Pnictides under high-pressure conditions.

Christopher Marvel is an assistant professor of mechanical engineering in the LSU College of Engineering. His project, “Role of Grain Boundary Complexion Transformations on Long-Range Interfacial Diffusion Effects,” has been awarded $757,000 to investigate how rare-earth doping of spinel can change the material’s structural, magnetic, and electrical properties.

“I am thrilled to have received the CAREER award,” Marvel said. “It will strengthen our structural ceramic research effort with a focus on atomic-scale behaviors using the atomic-resolution capabilities now being installed in the LSU Shared Instrumentation Facility.”

Rare-earth and silicon diffusion in spinel is investigated in the U.S., but the research outcomes can be extended to applications related to hydrogen permeation and embrittlement in iron and nickel alloys, intergranular carbon diffusion that leads to metal dusting degradation in steels and superalloys, both of which are chief concerns of LSU’s industrial partners in Louisiana.

Nicholas Mason is an assistant professor and curator of birds at the LSU Museum of Natural Science. His project, “Diversification Dynamics of Andean Sky Island Birds,” has been awarded one of the largest NSF CAREER awards ever to LSU—$1,033,000—for groundbreaking research on high-elevation bird species.

Mason’s research will focus on the birds that inhabit Polylepis forests, the highest-elevation forests in the world, scattered across the rugged Andes Mountains in Peru and Bolivia. These ecosystems are naturally fragmented, surrounded by grasslands, making them an ideal setting to study how bird populations remain connected or isolated over time.

“I often think that if I were to time travel back to when I started grad school in 2009 and tell myself where I ended up today, my past self wouldn’t believe it—but here we are!” Mason said.

Olufemi Olorode is an assistant professor of petroleum engineering in the LSU College of Engineering. His project, “Molecular Studies of Enhanced Hydrogen Hydrate Storage,” has been awarded $500,000 to discover ways to effectively store hydrogen gas as tiny bubbles in solid hydrate structures, which are crystalline compounds with bound water and “guest” molecules.

Hydrogen, a promising clean fuel, has long faced challenges in storage and transport. Olorode’s research could improve both storage capacity and stability.

“This work has the potential to transform hydrogen from a niche fuel into a scalable, reliable energy source for widespread use,” Olorode said. “Hydrogen hydrates offer a safe, efficient, and potentially cost-effective storage solution, and our findings could be instrumental in enabling their commercial application.”

Amy Xu is an assistant professor of chemistry in the LSU College of Science. Her project, “Protein and Polysaccharide Interactions in Crowded Environments,” has been awarded $802,000 to advance research on plant growth and resilience, exploring how proteins and complex sugars, known as polysaccharides, interact in busy plant cells.

“By understanding how proteins and polysaccharides interact in crowded environments, our findings could aid in developing more resilient crops,” Xu said. “Uncovering how plants adapt to stressors like drought and extreme temperatures will lay the groundwork for sustainable agricultural practices and help address global food security challenges.”

Recent studies reveal that proteins and polysaccharides can undergo liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS), forming distinct molecular assemblies contributing to essential biological processes. While LLPS has been extensively studied in protein-nucleic acid systems, its role in protein-polysaccharide interactions remains poorly understood. Xu’s research seeks to fill this gap by examining how protein-polysaccharide interactions contribute to plant functions, such as cell wall expansion and pollen formation.