Research Corporation for Science Advancement has awarded $800,000 to 11 Cottrell Scholars through its RCSA Bridge Awards. This emergency initiative will help stabilize strong research programs that have experienced disruptions due to abrupt changes to their federal funding.
“These researchers are pursuing exciting and productive research programs that are, importantly, training the next generation of scientists,” said RCSA President Eric Isaacs. “The Bridge awards provide critical continuity to outstanding early-career scientists doing high-potential research at a time in their careers when creativity and momentum are so important.”
The need-based opportunity for one-year awards of up to $100K each was open to scientists with appointments at U.S. academic institutions who either received a Cottrell Scholar Award in 2016 or later or are Holland Award recipients whose first academic appointment was in 2013 or later.
The proposals collectively highlighted the stresses currently facing early career faculty and their trainees. These included abrupt funding pauses, delays, or cancellations, uncertainty about funding renewals and future grant solicitations, and loss of support for students, postdocs, and technical staff.
“In the proposals we received, the most requested support was for graduate student and postdoctoral salaries,” said RCSA Senior Program Manager Silvia Ronco, who heads the Cottrell Scholar program, which nurtures a multi-generational community of teacher scholars delivering both high-impact research and innovative pedagogy.
“These awards give Cottrell Scholars time to pursue other funding sources while their students continue doing science, gathering and analyzing data, completing dissertations and training, and staying competitive at a vulnerable time in their careers.”
RCSA Bridge Awards are the foundation’s first emergency response to the funding disruptions that began in 2025. RCSA will continue to engage with its community to see where further support may be needed to advance bold, early-career science in the year ahead.
These Cottrell Scholars will receive 2025 RCSA Bridge Awards:
Vinayak Agarwal
CS 2021
Chemistry
Georgia Institute of Technology
Eukaryotic Halogenation Biochemistry for Unlocking Global Halogen Geocycles
Carlos Argüelles Delgado
CS 2024
Physics
Harvard University
Probing the Nature of Mass with Neutrino Telescopes
Justin Caram
CS 2021
Chemistry
University of California, Los Angeles
Single Nanocrystal Spectroscopy in the Shortwave Infrared
Eli Levenson-Falk
CS 2021
Physics
University of Southern California
Multi-mode Superconducting Circuits for Quantum Error Suppression
Ronit Freeman
CS 2023
Chemistry
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Engineering Living Materials for Long Term Therapeutic Release
William Pomerantz
CS 2016
Chemistry
University of Minnesota Twin Cities
Non-canonical Nucleosomal Interactions with BET Bromodomain-Containing Protein
Brian Shuve
CS 2021
Physics
Harvey Mudd College
Low-Energy Hidden Sector Signals at Colliders
Jesus Velazquez
CS 2020
Chemistry
University of California, Davis
Stabilizing Research and Student Training in Multinary Chalcogenides and Microenvironment-Driven CO₂ Valorization
V. Ashley Villar
CS 2025
Astronomy
Harvard University
Luminous Supernovae in the Rubin Era
Luisa Whittaker-Brooks
CS 2018
Chemistry
University of Utah
Harnessing Chiral Phonons for Quantum Transport
Amanda Wolfe
CS 2017
Chemistry
University of North Carolina at Asheville
Synthesis and Evaluation of Small Molecule Antibiotics that Inhibit Bioenergetic Enzymes in Gram-Negative Pathogens