NSF Partners with RCSA to Support Postdocs through Cottrell Fellowships
Research Corporation for Science Advancement has awarded more than $800,000 to 13 Cottrell Scholars to support the work of postdoctoral fellows whose plans to start independent academic or research careers this year were delayed or derailed due to institutional hiring freezes. Four of these awards are funded through a $340,000 grant from the National Science Foundation.
“Support from the NSF is a terrific vote of confidence in the work we’re doing to avoid losing a generation of scientists,” said RCSA President & CEO Daniel Linzer. “The partnership between federal funding and private philanthropy to promote workforce development in science has never been more important.”
As institutions face unprecedented financial challenges due to the COVID-19 emergency, RCSA asked its Cottrell Scholar community to identify critical needs in teaching and research and suggest ways private funding could help. Many expressed concerns about the immediate employment and careers of postdoctoral fellows working in their research groups. RCSA created the Cottrell Fellowships initiative in response.
After hearing about the initiative and its goals to help retain talented scientists and nurture the next generation of teacher-scholars, the Math and Physical Sciences Directorate of the NSF suggested a partnership with RCSA to augment the awards.
Each Cottrell Fellowship of up to $75,000 is for salary, benefits and research-related expenses of one postdoctoral fellow for the 2020-2021 academic year and 2021 summer. The awards are made to the Cottrell Scholars sponsoring the postdoctoral fellows.
Because Cottrell Scholars are known as innovators in both teaching and research, the awards include an expectation for continued pedagogical training for the postdocs in supportive environments.
“Career interruptions at the postdoctoral stage can be especially disruptive, especially for women and people from underrepresented groups,” said Senior Program Director Silvia Ronco. “Many may seek to leave academia entirely if the job market impedes their ability to advance in their careers.”
Recipients of 2020 Cottrell Fellowships are:
Seth Cohen (on behalf of postdoc Kyle Bentz) University of California, San Diego
Cottrell Fellowship – Dr. Kyle Bentz – MOF-polymer Hybrid Materials
Jahan Dawlaty (postdoc Sohini Sarkar) University of Southern California
Designer Electric Fields at Interfaces to Influence Electrocatalysis
Luis Campos (postdoc Rinat Meir) Columbia University
Photon Upconversion Biomaterials for Light-Activated Tissue Engineering
Sarbajit Banerjee (postdoc Rachel Davidson) Texas A&M University
Developing Design Rules for Accessing Metastable Solids through Global Exploration of Synthetic Landscapes
John Fourkas (postdoc Nikos Liaros) University of Maryland, College Park
2-Beam Action Spectroscopy for Elucidating Complex Nonlinear Optical Phenomena in Emerging 2D Materials
Teri Odom (postdoc Shikai Deng) Northwestern University
Core-shell Plasmonic Nanoparticle Lattices
Frank Leibfarth (postdoc Aaron Teator) University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Metal-Free, Controlled Stereoselective Polymerization of Vinyl Ethers
Maura McLaughlin (postdoc Dustin Madison) West Virginia University
Innovative Gravitational Research and Creative Curricular Development: A Bridge to a Career as a Teacher-Scholar
Kevin McFarland (postdoc Daniel Ruterbories) University of Rochester
Neutrino-Nucleus Interaction Studies for Neutrino Interferometry, and a Flipped Classroom for Vulnerable STEM students in Introductory Physics in the COVID19 Year
Vassiliki Kalogera (postdoc Diego Munoz) Northwestern University
Distorted Accretion Disks: The Restless Environments of Planet-Forming Systems
Lorenzo Sironi (postdoc Lucca Comisso) Columbia University
Unveiling Particle Energization in Astrophysical Plasmas
Brent Melot (postdoc Ahamed Irshad) University of Southern California
Solid Electrolytes with Dual Li+ and F- ion Conductivity to Overcome the Barrier of Gravimetric Capacity
David Ginger (postdoc Connor Bischak) University of Washington
Machine Learning Guided Investigations of Structure Function Relationships in Organic Mixed Ionic Electronic Conductors
The Cottrell Fellowship Initiative is partially funded by the National Science Foundation under award number CHE-2039044.
