Three UCI School of Physical Sciences Faculty Earn Prestigious NSF Early Career Awards

Three faculty from the UCI School of Physical Sciences have received the prestigious National Science Foundation (NSF) Early Career Development Awards to support their research, which also includes educational programs for middle school through college-age students.

The 2018 winners are assistant professors Franklin Dollar, Aomawa Shields and Tom Trogdon.

Aomawa Shields, Ph.D., the Clare Boothe Luce Assistant Professor also in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, was awarded $687,418 for the five year grant on her project titled CAREER: Bridging Theory and Observations of Habitable Worlds and Building a Bridge to Astronomy and Astrobiology for Underrepresented Middle-School Girls.

“I couldn’t be more honored to receive this NSF awards as it means we will break new ground globally in both science and education,” Shields shared. “We will be able to execute an interdisciplinary, multi-tiered research program bridging theory and observations of potentially habitable planets, and involve students and postdoctoral scholars in our efforts to target planets with the best prospects for hosting life in our corner of the Galaxy.”

Original Story: UCI Physical Sciences News – https://ps.uci.edu/node/49768