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Assistant
Professor Kujawinski
Awarded National Science Foundation Career Grant
 Elizabeth
Kujawinski, an environmental chemist and member of the Barnard
faculty, has been awarded a five-year, $435,000 grant by the
National Science Foundation under the Faculty Early Career
Development program.
The grant, awarded by the NSF's CAREER program, supports the
overall career development of selected junior faculty through
research support and education.
Kujawinski, who joined the Barnard faculty as assistant professor
in 2002, has focused her research on the role of microorganisms
in breaking down organic compounds in aquatic systems.
"As an environmental chemist, I'm fundamentally interested
in what happens when humankind affects the environment,"
said Kujawinski. "One of the things I’m interested
in understanding is what's going on in the natural system
and then what happens when contaminants get introduced."
NSF promotes and advances scientific progress in the United
States by competitively awarding grants for research and education
in the sciences, mathematics and engineering.
NSF awards CAREER grants to help top-performing scientists
and engineers early in their careers develop their contributions
and commitment to research and education. Teacher-scholars
who are deemed most likely to become the academic leaders
of the 21st century are chosen.
After completing work in the laboratory, Kujawinski will take
her research into the field, comparing the nutrient-rich oceanic
environment off the coast of New York to the nutrient-barren
area off the coast of Bermuda. Kujawinski will be working
with a selected team of undergraduates.
"The grant basically allows me to take a deep breath
and do what I want to do for a while," she said.
Kujawinski joins three other Barnard professors who have been
recipients of NSF CAREER grants: physicists Laura Kay and
Reshmi Mukherjee and chemist Linda Doerrer.
Contact:
Glenn Slavin, Public Affairs, 212-854-7922
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