University of Colorado at Boulder

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-08

Removing excess heat from electronic devices is essential for energy efficiency, overall performance, reliability, and lifespan. Next-generation electronic devices, including communication systems, electrical vehicles, high-performance computation, and military technologies, will need to operate at much higher frequencies and power levels. Meeting this demand will require new semiconductors materials with capabilities beyond those of silicon and models that can accurately describe the heat flow behavior within complex microelectronics. This project will develop unique measurement tools by harnessing ultraviolet laser pulses to study heat flow in these future semiconductor materials. The results will provide critical information about heat behavior at extremely small size and timescales, which will advance models of heat flow for the semiconductor industry. In addition, the project will encourage undergraduate and graduate students to work closely with industry professionals, which will help educate the future workforce in microelectronics. This project will demonstrate and advance a nondestructive, noncontact ultrafast, deep-ultraviolet transient grating spectroscopy technique to probe phonon-dominated thermal transport in wide- and ultrawide-bandgap thin films and substrates as a function transport length-scale. By coupling the extensive previous work in visible-based transient grating spectroscopy with the high-photon energy and short-wavelength of ultrafast deep-ultraviolet laser pulses, this project will harness these new tools to observe phonon flow over effective transport scales in the sub-100 nm regime with sub-ps temporal precision. Specifically, these results will fill much-needed gaps in the literature on the thermal transport properties of gallium oxides, boron nitride, crystalline diamond, and other materials. More importantly, this project will investigate the exotic behaviors of nanoscale hot spots in these materials induced by highly-nonequilibrium phonon distributions, such as thermal viscous and memory effects that were recently observed in crystalline silicon and germanium. By collaborating closely with state-of-the-art theory, these measurements will provide more insight on the fundamental picture of heat flow in semiconductors and validate new models, such as the mesoscopic hydrodynamic approach, with the capability to predict behavior in complex and multi-scales devices. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-08

Arctic regions are experiencing warming air, rising ocean temperatures, and reduced sea ice cover. This increases the occurrence of harmful algal blooms in northern latitudes. These blooms consist of high concentrations of toxic algae in coastal marine waters that poison marine life and pose significant threats to human health. The toxins can cause stomach pain, headache, and rashes as well as more serious problems like liver damage, seizures, cardiac arrhythmias, and death. Knowledge of the impact of harmful algal blooms on Arctic populations and marine ecosystems is limited. Once relatively immune to such blooms, Arctic coastal waters are becoming increasingly susceptible to their presence. This research undertakes exploratory research to investigate impacts of harmful algal blooms on Arctic peoples and marine ecosystems. Western Greenland was chosen for the pilot due to its seasonal sea ice cover and the calving of ice bergs from continental glaciers, both of which can host toxic algae. Here local populations subsist primarily on marine mammals and sea life (i.e., seals, whales, fish, and shellfish), all of which, under the right environmental conditions, can contain algal bloom toxins. The project team is composed of scientists who are experts in Arctic environmental science, social scientists, and medical professionals who are well acquainted with Greenland health issues and the associated data. It also includes significant interaction with the local communities to learn from their experience. Broader impacts of the work include an improved understanding of the impacts of toxic algae on northern populations, critical fisheries, other marine food sources. There is also the likelihood that results of the work can be translated to other populations in the northern latitudes. This project advances knowledge across the fields of environmental science and human health in northern latitudes. It draws on data as diverse as indigenous knowledge, coupled natural/human systems, eco-dynamics, historical ecology, food security and resilience theory. The work involves data and statistical analysis of environmental condition records from the present back to 1777; data from satellite remote sensing and ocean hydrographic, salinity, and temperature data; marine ecosystem and biology data and extensive stakeholder engagement; state-of-the-art gridded ocean data sets and local health and hospitalization records. It involves scenario-building for identifying the impacts of harmful algal blooms in northern latitudes. This approach will improve understanding of how different environmental factors work together to trigger algal toxin-related health problems and perhaps help devise mitigations to reduce human health risks in rapidly evolving northern climates and the associated marine ecosystem responses. The work falls withing the context of the One Arctic One Health initiative, initiated during the U.S. Chairmanship (2015–2017) of the Arctic Council which was designed to strengthen regional knowledge sharing and establish knowledge hubs and coordination for health concerns in the Arctic member states. Project tasks involve (1) establishing baselines for algal bloom environmental factors; (2) generating a detailed analysis of potential occurrences of north latitude harmful algal blooms from the past to present; (3) identifying health issues that can be traced to the presence of algal neurotoxins and the consumption of different marine species (fish/marine mammals). This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-08

Sustainability of water supplies in the Andes Region in South America is put at risk by a warming climate, which is causing glacier retreat and contributing to the decline of lakes and reservoirs. This research project will analyze sediment cores from Lake Titicaca—the highest navigable freshwater lake in the world—and use these data to help uncover how natural Earth system processes have influenced water supply, glacier coverage, and ecosystems in the high Andes over the past 370,000 years. The findings will help explain when and why major droughts occurred in the past—and what these events can reveal about future water-related risks. Findings will be shared through a bilingual website, public presentations and outreach. All data and models will be freely available to researchers, policy makers, and local partners. By linking ancient climate events with present-day challenges, this work will help regional planners and communities understand and address future risks to water resources. This research project will develop a new record of precipitation, isotopes, temperature, and lake level spanning the past ~370,000 years using legacy drill cores from Lake Titicaca. The project will use these data to explore how the surrounding environment has changed, with a focus on understanding long-term water resource availability in the Andes. The analysis of geochemical and isotopic signals preserved in the sediments will be used to reconstruct how the regional environment responded to environmental shifts over glacial–interglacial timescales. To deepen understanding of these changes, the sediment-based environmental reconstructions will be paired with computer model simulations and AI-assisted methods for refining large-scale data to the local level. New time-slice experiments with isotope-enabled climate models spanning the last glacial cycle will help to better understand the drivers of environmental changes, including the relative roles of local and remote forcings on the South American Monsoon System, and will be a resource for future research by the paleoclimate community. This award is co-funded by the Division of Earth Sciences (EAR) and the Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences (AGS). This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-08

Collaborative researchers from the University of Colorado at Boulder, University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, and Utah State University will scale and expand their prior NSF-funded research, STEM Career Connections, across three rural school districts. The project will increase rural middle and high school students' skills in technology and computing explicitly required for workforce-related technology and computing careers. Participating school districts are located in tourism-oriented, rural communities with large income disparities and a high percentage of economically-disadvantaged families. Students have limited exposure to information and communication technologies, internet access and bandwidth. Many communities have inadequate funding for technology infrastructure and have challenges in adapting technology to local community needs. Such challenges profoundly limit opportunities for students to develop relevant skills for lucrative technology and computationally-intensive STEM jobs and careers within their communities. Moreover, teacher training gaps exist in digital literacy, along with access to technology-enabled teaching resources. The project will provide courses for middle and high school students that will greatly expand students' proficiency in technology design, computer programming, and deploying sensor systems using core curricula aligned with national standards for computer and network technologies, sensor technologies, and big data. To address the shortage of STEM and technical career teaching and learning opportunities, the project will develop a community infrastructure of technology partnerships that will support students' access to STEM career pathways. Community partnerships, workplace apprenticeships, and mentoring by educators, community stakeholders, and local businesses, will broaden participation of students in STEM-related jobs and careers in technology and computing. The STEM Career Connections model employs research-based strategies for working with rural mountain communities. The instructional design will involve direct engagement of experts in curriculum co-design who will collaborate with researchers, teachers, and district leaders on curriculum development, development of mentorship materials, and STEM disciplinary support. The design-based research approach will employ quantitative and qualitative research methods that will address critical research questions to understand project impacts, including (1) how and to what extent the education activities implemented in collaboration with local partners are shown to be effective in supporting students' development of computing and STEM disciplinary knowledge and skills; (2) how and to what extent students will be able to apply their acquired disciplinary skills and understandings to scientific problem-solving; (3) to what extent will the project result in students' aspiration to pursue technology and computing jobs and careers; (4) how and in what ways does the partnership co-design process contribute to the success of the learning model within rural contexts, and inform a model of common characteristics for technology and computing education relevant and beneficial to other rural communities. Data sources will include surveys, observations of classrooms and partnership meetings, interviews with youth, teachers, and community members, student assessments, and analyses of student-created artifacts. Data analyses will examine students' evolving interest, awareness, and disciplinary knowledge. Analyses will inform practices for rural technology education; build knowledge on the common characteristics of rural mountain communities; and inform how local and regional partnerships can coordinate mutually beneficial interests to play an essential role in communities with limited access to technology and STEM-related technology jobs. Project evaluation will be conducted by Utah State University. This project is funded by the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program, which supports projects that build understandings of practices, program elements, contexts and processes contributing to increasing students' knowledge and interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and information and communication technology (ICT) careers. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-08

This doctoral dissertation research investigates the impact of food commodity supply chains on local communities. Through a focus on the commodity supply chains of industrial meat production, investigators specifically test for the various factors that influence rural households, communities, and economic livelihoods. They also measure the variable impacts of local and imported meat production and consumption on agricultural communities and the adaptations that the communities undergo as they participate in the broader commodity supply chains of food production. Research activities include interview and behavioral data collection across food commodity supply chains. The broader impacts plan includes training of a graduate student in anthropological science and widespread dissemination plans to various stakeholders in this bioeconomy. The research findings will make contributions to the anthropology of food and food production and to local management of bioeconomy. It will significantly expand our understanding of commodity supply chains related to food. The project furthers research that fuels economic prosperity, particularly in the agricultural sectors and impacts investments in understanding human adoption of biotechnology innovations. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-08

This award will support research related to the Natural Hazards Center's role as an information clearinghouse for understanding societal dimensions of hazards and disasters. The Center develops and disseminates knowledge and connects hazards research communities with representatives from government agencies, nonprofit organizations, professional associations, the private sector, and the media. Natural hazards, including extreme weather events such as hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, drought, and wildfires, as well as earthquakes, landslides, and other geological phenomena, pose significant and increasing threats to people, property, and the environment across the United States. To reduce risk, this project pursues four objectives: (1) advancing multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary hazards and disaster research to enhance societal resilience; (2) translating and sharing information across institutions and organizations; (3) building connections between researchers, practitioners, and policymakers; and (4) supporting the next generation hazards and disaster workforce. This project looks to advance research through the development of the Third Assessment of Natural Hazards. This assessment engages more than 100 of the nation's leading experts to review and synthesize over 25 years of research. It takes stock of what has been learned and applied in the hazards and disaster field and identifies knowledge gaps that remain. The effort promises to offer a new framework for understanding the impacts of disaster on people and civil infrastructures. Further, the assessment intends to set an agenda to guide the next decade of hazards research and establish a plan to strengthen the workforce. This project also supports training and funding for researchers to ethically collect perishable disaster data through the Quick Response Research Award Program. Awardees produce research reports and research briefs that inform and improve disaster preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation. Additional supported activities will include convening the annual Natural Hazards Research and Applications Workshop and Researchers Meeting; coordinating the Social Science Extreme Events Research (SSEER) network; publishing the Disaster Research: News You Can Use newsletter and Research Counts series; and maintaining the Natural Hazards Center website, which is a key source of information and resources for the hazards and disaster field. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-08

Coastal regions are vulnerable to flooding from rivers and rising seas, increasing storm strength, and destruction of ecologically-fragile areas. River deltas are especially impacted by the balance between increasing water levels from sea-level rise and tides, and land surface elevation changes. Bangladesh’s Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta (GBD), the world’s largest delta, is a particularly excellent place to investigate this problem. The land is sinking (subsiding), worsening the impact of sea-level rise, but the rivers supply ample sediment to elevate the land. However, there is a mismatch in the distribution of sediment and land subsidence; some areas are maintained by sediments, while others are at serious risk of land loss. This project will combine local, on-the-ground measurements of elevation change with broad satellite observations, and develop a comprehensive numerical model of elevation change. The numerical model will enable synthesis of all measurements and incorporate shallow processes that are missing from most models. Results will contribute to Bangladesh’s coastal planning through established collaboration with government agencies, academic institutions, and non-governmental organizations. This project will support 2 postdocs and 3 graduate students in the U.S. as well as build capacity for students and faculty in Bangladesh. U.S. undergraduate students will participate in the proposed research through internship programs and a capstone course that includes a Spring Break field trip to Bangladesh. The model will have great applicability for use in coastal areas prone to flood risk, especially lowland deltas worldwide including the Mississippi Delta. Unraveling the intersecting processes that contribute to vertical land-surface dynamics is critical for forecasting sustainability of lowland deltas into the future. This project will employ multidisciplinary research that integrates an existing delta-wide network of sediment cores and geospatial instruments with broad-scale, multi-sensor satellite remote-sensing analyses, producing novel high-resolution maps of decadal surface-elevation change, topography, and land-use across the coastal zone. A state-of-the-art poroelastic model will be developed, validated, and applied to coastal Bangladesh. The team hypothesizes that at any given site on the delta, surface-elevation change reflects the vertical integration of sedimentation, near-surface soil consolidation, subsurface compaction of Holocene sediment, and deep tectonic/isostatic response of the lithosphere. Across the delta, surface-elevation change reflects how modern land use restricts surface sedimentation and accelerates consolidation, and how ancient river dynamics constructed the alluvial architecture of compacting Holocene sediments. These hypotheses will be tested with a process-based, holistic understanding of vertical land-surface dynamics, and will guide coastal hazard mitigation and sustainability efforts on the GBD and other deltas that face similar environmental and anthropogenic stressors (e.g., Mississippi and Sacramento-San Joaquin river deltas). This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-08

Entangled materials, composed of particles with hooks, barbs, or geometric features that mechanically interlock, hold great promise as lightweight, strong, and recyclable alternatives to traditional structural materials. Unlike metallic foams or fiber composites, entangled materials can adapt their internal structure, self-heal from damage, and be reconfigured or recycled indefinitely. Despite their potential for use in aerospace, infrastructure, defense, and energy systems, a fundamental understanding of how particle geometry governs entanglement, strength, and failure is missing. Currently, there are no predictive models or design guidelines to engineer entangled materials with targeted mechanical properties. The objective of this project is to develop a unified mechanics-based framework to understand and control entanglement, which seeks to enable rational design of next-generation structural materials. The project will integrate computational modeling, analytical theory, and experimental validation to capture how entanglement forms, evolve, and breaks under load. New tools, including geometric entanglement criteria, Markov chain-based models, and network descriptors for force pathways, will be developed and coupled with discrete element simulations. These models will be validated through physical prototypes fabricated using 3D printing and precision laser cutting, and tested using in-situ mechanical experiments with refractive index matched scanning (RIMS). The outcomes intend to include design principles for creating entangled materials with high tensile strength, fracture toughness, and damage tolerance, as well as the ability to self-heal or disassemble under vibration. Educational components involve curriculum development, graduate and undergraduate research, local high school engagement, and mentoring activities aimed at broadening participation in materials science and mechanics. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-08

Ocean mesoscale eddies are ubiquitous features of the global ocean that strongly influence the ocean’s physics, chemistry, and biology; they influence other components of the Earth system via air-sea and sea-ice interactions and are crucial drivers of marine heat waves. The project applies modern spatial-statistical methods to an extensive data set of satellite observations of sea surface height. This will result in advancement of our understanding of the physical oceanography of those eddies, and of their representation in global ocean models, and of their changes over time. This project will introduce new and comprehensive statistical analyses of eddy trajectories and characteristics. The project will use high-resolution Earth system simulations to assess and understand internal variability in the eddy population, as well as to predict decadal to centennial changes in the population. Standard practice for comparing the population of eddies in models and in observations uses simple statistics like eddy kinetic energy and SSH variability. The use of such basic statistics can mask important differences between the modeled and observed eddy populations. This project will use the newly developed extensions of the statistical description of eddy populations to precisely quantify the differences between observed and modeled eddy populations. The project will then, on the basis of this precise comparison, work to assess the fidelity of different models and to improve the representation of eddies in the models. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-07

The radiation belts are a region of high-energy particles that orbit around the Earth. These energetic particles present a hazard to human exploration and technology in space, especially for satellites in geostationary orbit. Understanding the timing and dominant mechanism of radiation belt enhancement events (sudden, system-wide energization of radiation belt particles) is critical to nation security. This project will determine how the plasmapause (the outer boundary of a region of cold, dense plasma surrounding the Earth) controls radiation belt enhancements. One major acceleration mechanism of radiation belt particles (local acceleration) is driven by plasma waves that only occur outside the plasmapause, so we expect that the radiation belt enhancements that are driven by local acceleration would occur outside the plasmapause while other acceleration mechanisms may drive enhancements inside the plasmasphere. This study will systematically evaluate the long-term behavior of radiation belt enhancements and conduct in-depth case studies to evaluate how plasmapause controls radiation belt enhancement events. Radiation belt enhancement events occur when electrons in near-Earth space are accelerated close to the speed of light. Local acceleration is a major acceleration mechanism, which occurs when 10’s – 100’s keV electrons interact with chorus waves, resulting in particle energization to multiple MeV. Chorus waves can only happen outside the plasmapause, so radiation belt enhancements tend to occur outside the plasmasphere. This study will use multi-spacecraft observations provided by the Global Positioning System (GPS) constellation to study the control of the plasmapause on radiation belt enhancements on timescales over a solar cycle. We will study data from 2008 (when 8 GPS with combined X-ray dosimeters, CXDs, were active) until 2023 (25 active GPS with CXD) and combine these data with plasmapause models to statistically analyze the offset of enhancement locations from the plasmapause and energy-dependence of radiation belt enhancements. Case studies will then be performed to examine why the radiation belt enhancements tend to be offset from the plasmapause, determine the spatial extent of the region of electron energization, and evaluate why some radiation belt enhancements occur inside the plasmasphere. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-07

This project will enhance our understanding particles that can swim and change shape, much like tiny microorganisms. These particles, called active particles, take energy from their surroundings to create small fluid flows that propel them forward. This project will explore the behavior of active particles that can also change their shape. The project will use electric fields to influence the movement of shape-changing particles and to understand how the particles interact with each other. The project will then examine the collective behavior of swarming active particles. Results of the project can be used to determine and control the properties of a fluid containing active particles, which potentially can be applied in biomedicine, environmental remediation, and micro-scale manufacturing. The project will also support training of future scientific leaders from high school to graduate and postdoctoral levels. This award will advance the understanding and application of active particulate systems by exploring the dynamics of shape-morphing particles capable of autonomous propulsion. Leveraging electric fields as a precise control mechanism, the research will investigate how these fields manipulate shape-morphing particles to achieve diverse locomotion patterns while simultaneously promoting interparticle interactions and emergent collective behaviors. By synthesizing particles from a range of materials with different properties, the project aims to leverage both electrohydrodynamic (EHD) flows and induced charge electrophoresis (ICEP) to achieve targeted responses to programmed shape changes. The project will also focus on elucidating the mechanisms governing pairwise interactions among shape-morphing particles under varying electric field strengths. The ability to tune particle interactions and motions through external stimuli may open new avenues in advanced manufacturing, bioengineering, and environmental applications. Furthermore, the initiative includes a commitment to enhance STEM education by engaging high school students through outreach efforts, thereby fostering the development of future leaders in the field. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-07

This Pathway to Enable Open-Source Ecosystems (POSE) project addresses the need for accurate coastal elevation models. Computer models of coastal land heights and water depths are important for many scientific and societal applications such as determining the flood risk for the United States’ coastal communities. The coastal elevation models are essential for emergency managers, infrastructure planners, and private industries such as property insurers. The accuracy of the coastal elevation models directly impacts the reliability of these public and private industry endeavors. The Coastal Elevation Model Team has also developed computer software to determine the accuracy of their elevation models. The software for creating coastal elevation models and assessing their accuracy to work closely together in two code repositories called the Continuously Updated Digital Elevation Model framework and the ICESat-2 Validation of Elevations Reporting Tool. These software tools allow users at multiple skill levels to create elevation models for many public and private applications and to know the accuracy of those models, providing an invaluable set of tools that directly benefits taxpayers, community stakeholders, and private industries. These software packages create elevation models from the fusion of numerous public datasets and generate rigorous accuracy assessments of these computer models. Both code repositories are open-source, meaning they are freely accessible to the public, and a variety of partner organizations and agencies are currently using them. This project scopes and plans an Open-Source Ecosystem (i.e., a governance framework) for long-term community development and improvements to these software packages. Starting with knowledge learned from the training sessions, the team is drafting a framework based on current knowledge of the users’ and collaborators’ needs. In parallel, the team is expanding the existing documentation of its software to assist users and collaborators when discussing the project’s future needs. The Coastal Elevation Model Team is hosting a set of community workshops at conferences that collaborators frequently attend, as well as virtual meetings with other users and teams, to iteratively improve the draft framework and incorporate community feedback. The team is also preparing a forward-looking plan that includes the needs of the collaborator community while also maintaining known “best practices” for healthy, open-source scientific software development. Finally, the Coastal Elevation Model Team is training students on how to use and contribute to the software environments. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-07

Computers and supercomputers have transformed every aspect of our world and provided essential tools for science, engineering, the economy, and society. The key to the success of this technology lies in the intrinsic error protection of classical bits, which enables us to preserve and process information in a noisy environment. Inspired by the triumph of this approach, the PI of the proposal will leverage error protection to enhance the reliability of newly developed quantum computers. Quantum computers are innovative machines that exploit the intriguing features of the quantum world, such as quantum superposition and entanglement, to accelerate the execution of certain algorithms and simulate complex systems. Among the various pathways to create quantum computers, nanofabricated electrical circuits made from metals with zero resistance, also known as superconductors, form a promising platform. However, these superconducting qubits are highly sensitive to environmental noise, which limits their performance. By employing Fourier engineering, where information is redundantly encoded in higher harmonics of the quantum states in space and time, the PI will design and fabricate novel quantum circuits that are resilient against information loss. A central feature of these Fourier qubits is that they possess multiple circuit nodes, leading to complex circuit potentials with intrinsic error protection. The objective of this work is to demonstrate the logical operation and scalability of these qubits in proof-of-concept experimental devices. These devices can pave the way for robust superconducting quantum processors and open new routes toward solving challenging computational problems in academia and beyond. In parallel with the research efforts, the PI’s integrated education and outreach program intends to bridge the gap between engineering studies and quantum sciences. By emphasizing the engineering aspects of designing quantum devices, broadly disseminating lecture notes of new quantum engineering classes, and enhancing the exposure of communities to quantum engineering education, this program will lead to a paradigm shift in training the next generation of the quantum workforce. This work will develop a quantum engineering program that focuses on the experimental realization of new types of superconducting circuits and strengthen the quantum education of engineering students in tandem. The PI will engineer controllable quantum Fourier qubits that are immune to decoherence and develop classical analogs of these qubits to introduce engineering students to quantum hardware. The research will evolve along two directions. First, the PI will focus on engineering multi-mode circuits, where multiple potential valleys in the phase space of the superconducting wavefunction will host protected quantum states. At the initial stage of the research, exploration of new circuit topologies using numerical methods will play a crucial role. After identifying the circuit layout, the devices will be simulated, nanofabricated, and characterized. The PI will demonstrate extended qubit lifetimes and high-fidelity control of the qubit states. The second research direction of the proposal focuses on active Fourier qubits, where protection arises from strongly oscillating the external parameters of a well-established quantum circuit, the fluxonium. As part of the project, single- and two-qubit operations will be characterized to demonstrate the feasibility of active Fourier qubits in quantum processors. The research projects are strongly tied to quantum engineering education and outreach because the realization of the classical counterparts of Fourier qubits, as multi-mode complex mechanical oscillators, form engaging research projects for undergraduate students and help demystify convoluted quantum concepts for engineers interested in quantum research. Furthermore, the PI will improve the quantum engineering curriculum by developing engineering-focused approaches, with hands-on components in a fabrication facility, to introduce students from broad backgrounds to the cutting-edge techniques of the quantum industry. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-07

Reducing the fuel consumption of sea and air vehicles by lowering their drag could have significant economic and environmental benefits. One way to reduce drag is to maintain laminar flow of the water or air over the entirety of the vehicle surface, which for modern ships and aircraft is normally turbulent. Laminar flow causes significantly less friction than turbulent flow, which reduces drag. Methods for laminar flow control have had limited success because most either (i) involve an active device that requires energy input, (ii) are effective only in a particular range of flow conditions, or both. This project will apply a new technology to maintain laminar flow called Phononic subsurfaces (PSubs), which are architected material units placed beneath the vehicle surface engineered to passively impede the growth of flow instabilities that lead to turbulence. The project will also sponsor a computational education workshop and an art education component to train visual artists to represent physical phenomena in an engaging way for the public. Previous computation-based studies have demonstrated that properly designed PSubs can locally suppress linear instability. However, current methods lack a unified approach to eliminate the growth of perturbations downstream of the control region while also handling such perturbations over a broad-frequency range and when incident from varying directions. Furthermore, the PSub concept has not yet been experimentally validated. This project will tackle these deficiencies. An array of PSubs will be designed and distributed spatially as a lattice, and using stability theory and direct numerical simulations, the research will demonstrate that such a collective PSub configuration can extend the stabilization effect downstream of the control region while also handling instabilities approaching the control region from different directions. In addition, each PSub in the array will exhibit a novel coiled architecture that will allow it to impede the instabilities over a much broader frequency range than the nominal uncoiled case. A comprehensive experimental investigation will be conducted on the performance of the PSub in a water tunnel facility using phase-locked and time-resolved particle image velocimetry measurements. Thus, the proposed program will advance and integrate fundamental knowledge of flow control and Phononic structural design and manufacturing, experimental characterization, and evaluation of the technology in realistic laboratory conditions. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-07

Reliable access to water is crucial to the health and economic prosperity of the nation. However, water scarcity in some regions is creating a need for new methods to produce clean water from a variety of sources including wastewater and seawater. This project will investigate an innovative distillation process for water purification that can produce safe, high-quality water using less energy than other conventional processes use. The key innovation in the project is to use pressure instead of heat to distill water, which has the potential to reduce energy use by a factor of ten. Pressure-driven distillation will require a new class of water treatment membranes that can remove salt and contaminants from challenging water sources. The research team will build on its preliminary results to develop high-performance membranes suitable for pressure-driven distillation. The deployment of innovative water systems will require a skilled workforce. The project team will conduct project-based learning modules on water scarcity for high school students and will involve undergraduate students in the research. Overall, the project will foster both the technological innovation and skilled workforce needed to secure a sustainable water future. Addressing water scarcity requires efficiently treating impaired water sources, such as wastewater and saline water, to remove nearly all dissolved constituents. The goal of this CAREER project is to reinvent distillation as an efficient, pressure-driven process for advanced water treatment. Conventional distillation processes are driven by heat and have poor energy efficiency in water treatment. The central hypothesis of this work is that membranes with tailored surface structures and an ultrathin air layer will facilitate pressure-driven distillation in a more efficient, selective, and robust way than conventional processes. The objectives of the project are to (1) explore distillation membranes that resist wetting under applied pressure, (2) evaluate the maximum water permeability for distillation membranes, and (3) conduct application-relevant testing with high performance composite membranes. These goals will be carried out using advanced material fabrication methods, experimental performance characterization, and new modeling techniques. The project will contribute to the scientific foundation for a new class of water treatment membranes that produce higher-quality water with less energy than conventional systems. The project will also develop fundamental knowledge on wetting physics and evaporation phenomena. Education and outreach efforts will support the training of the next generation of water engineers by developing hands-on water treatment modules for high schools in communities impacted by water scarcity. A mentorship program will engage undergraduate students in advanced water treatment research. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-07

PART 1: NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY Many industrial applications rely upon strong and stable polymer thin films. Examples of applications include flexible (bendable) electronic devices, very thin plastic membranes for separation, or multilayer plastic films for protection. Such related technologies are critical for diverse uses in improving health monitoring and diagnosis, cleaning air and water, and increasing food shelf life and solar cell stability through barrier protection. Designing mechanically stable and thinner polymer films for these applications will lower the cost of materials, reduce the energy requirements for filtration, and decrease the amount of plastic ending up in landfills. However, when polymer materials are processed into thinner films, mechanical strength is known to change, but how those changes depend on temperature and how they attach to different substrates remains unclear. Using recently developed techniques, the PI will directly study the mechanical properties of ultrathin polymer films and provide new fundamental data and knowledge to guide the production of polymer materials for better adhesives, membranes, coatings, and many other technologies. The proposed research will provide a strong foundation for the education and training of graduate and undergraduate researchers. In addition to research efforts, new curriculum will be designed to inspire high school students across Colorado and Hawaiʻi to explore and pursue advanced degrees and careers in STEM disciplines. These curriculum materials for high school classrooms and summer programs will be developed to align materials science and engineering lessons with traditional Indigenous knowledge. PART 2: TECHNICAL SUMMARY The objective of this CAREER project is to develop an inclusive research and educational program dedicated to understanding the mechanics of polymers, with a special emphasis on systems that are traditionally difficult to characterize, such as ultrathin films (< 100 nm). The primary research goal is to elucidate how structure and dynamics at the surface of the film affect the mechanical properties of ultrathin polymer films. The PI’s research group will systematically evaluate thickness-induced changes in the tensile and fracture properties in ultrathin polymer films as a function of (1) surface mobility, (2) crosslinking, and (3) surface interactions. This work will advance the development of nanotechnologies with long-term thermomechanical stability. The research goal will be integrated with an educational outreach program focusing on connecting Western materials science knowledge to Indigenous knowledge to increase recruitment and retention of students in STEM, with a focus on broadening participation, including Native Hawaiians. This will be achieved in three stages: 1) curriculum development through a pilot program at a local Colorado high school, 2) development and implementation of short-form curriculum materials for broader dissemination in Colorado and Hawaii, and 3) undergraduate exposure to materials research. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-06

This I-Corps project focuses on the development of carbon fiber derived from waste gas carbon dioxide (CO2). Carbon fiber is widely used in industries including aerospace, automotive, and energy generation due to its high strength-to-weight ratio, which boosts both fuel efficiency and performance. Advances in additive manufacturing have enabled the use of carbon dioxide as the feedstock for carbon fiber production, eliminating the need for the expensive polymer precursor used by industry incumbents. This new production method significantly reduces the production temperature from ~1000°C (polyacrylonitrile-derived carbon fibers) to ~750°C (carbon dioxide-derived carbon fiber), allowing for a significant reduction in the production cost of carbon fiber. The new product is nearing the performance specs of popular chopped carbon fiber offerings, while significantly reducing production costs. In addition to being both cost competitive and carbon negative, this new method of producing carbon fiber through the utilization of advances in additive manufacturing has the potential to significantly increase the U.S. domestic production of carbon fiber, adding supply chain security. This I-Corps project utilizes experiential learning coupled with a first-hand investigation of the industry ecosystem to assess the translation potential of the technology. This solution is based on the development of a novel process that converts carbon dioxide (CO₂) into high-performance carbon fiber using molten carbonate electrolysis. The system electrolytically reduces CO₂ gas—sourced from industrial waste streams or direct air capture—into solid elemental carbon at the cathode, while oxygen evolves at the anode. By controlling current density, electrolysis potential, and electrolyte composition, the process enables the deposition of aligned carbon structures suitable for fiber extrusion. These carbon deposits are continuously drawn from the melt using a liquid-metal-assisted nozzle, allowing control over fiber diameter, morphology, and mechanical properties. Scientific advances in high-temperature electrochemistry, cathode surface engineering, and phase-selective carbon growth enable the formation of a graphitic carbon aligned along the draw axis. The resulting material exhibits tunable modulus and strength characteristics, targeting applications in composites, lightweight structures, and conductive media. By turning CO₂—a waste product of several industrial processes—into a valuable structural material, this technology offers both economic and environmental benefits. This transformative approach redefines carbon fiber manufacturing for aerospace, automotive, and industrial markets. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-06

The Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL) is the primary international scientific organization in the fields of computational linguistics, natural language processing and human language technologies. The annual meeting of its Nations of the Americas chapter (NAACL) is one of the most prestigious and selective international conferences in these fields. The Student Research Workshop (SRW) is an established tradition at NAACL conferences, allowing students to present their research and receive feedback from more senior researchers. It provides a valuable opportunity for students at different stages of their academic careers. This grant supports student participation at the NAACL-HLT 2025 Student Research Workshop, which will take place during the main NAACL-HLT conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico from April 29 to May 4, 2025. Student participants will submit to present either a thesis proposal to receive feedback or a research paper which describes completed work, or work in progress with preliminary results. Additionally, there will be a pre-submission mentoring program, which enables students submitting to the SRW to first get feedback on their work from a post-PhD expert in their field. Undergraduate and graduate students at the early stages of their graduate career get a chance to present their work and receive feedback before it becomes suitable for publication at the main conference. The SRW also provides valuable experience for the student organizers, who are directly involved in recruiting reviewers, managing the review process and running the workshop. Overall, the opportunities for interaction with other students and with senior researchers will positively influence the student participants and will likely inspire many to devote further effort to academic studies and careers. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-06

This is a project in universal algebra, a part of foundations of mathematics with connections to classical algebra and computer science. Universal algebra generally studies algebraic structures, the mathematical framework for computations, solving equations, etc. This project investigates various notions of nilpotence, specific finiteness conditions on algebras, and how they can be used to develop efficient algorithms. It is motivated by questions that arise in computer science when manipulating relations, in the structure theory of classical algebras, and in the classification of non-standard general algebras. The goal is to combine and extend recent independent advances in these areas to develop a general algebraic toolkit for specifying and analyzing nilpotent algebras, and to apply it to solving key open problems in all these areas. Developed from the classical notion in group theory, commutator theory in universal algebra is one of the main tools for investigating the structure of algebras via properties of their congruences. The principal investigator will study and compare the distinct notions of nilpotence and supernilpotence that arise from binary and higher term condition commutators. The first goal is a more precise classification of central extensions in congruence modular varieties using the new concept of clonoids. The investigator will then use this to study to what extent known results in the supernilpotent setting generalize to the nilpotent. Specific projects include the Finite Basis Problem, which concerns nilpotent algebras having finitely axiomatizable equational theories, and the development of efficient algorithms for computing in direct powers of algebras with cube terms, which reduces to central extensions based on the investigator's previous work. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-06

Given that plants cannot outrun their predators, they often rely on chemical defenses to protect themselves and their offspring (seeds). These chemical defenses, often unique to particular plants or groups of plants, are valuable resources for developing natural pesticides that may carry fewer risks for ecosystems and for consumers. This project focuses on a group of plants in the tomato family that produce a promising class of natural insecticides called acylsugars. These sticky sugars are produced by gland-tipped hairs and act as traps for insect predators, but they are non-toxic to humans and degrade quickly in the environment. While most acylsugar research has examined their importance in leaf defense, this research will explore their role in protecting the fruit and its enclosed seeds, studying the tomatillos and their wild relatives. Many of these species cover their fruit in a balloon-like sac that develops from the outer organ of the flower (the calyx), and they decorate this inflated calyx with dense sticky acylsugar-coated hairs. This research will investigate the relationship between the repeated evolutionary origins of the inflated calyx across tomatillos and the production of insecticidal acylsugars, providing the foundation for developing novel natural insecticides. This project is built upon a collaborative network of tomatillo researchers from the U.S. and abroad and will advance international collaborations. It will provide training opportunities for early career researchers including high school students, undergraduates, graduate students, and a postdoctoral fellow. In order to trace the coordinated evolution of inflated fruiting calyces and acylsugar defenses, the research will build the first comprehensive phylogenetic tree for all 310 species in the tomatillo clade. The phylogeny will be estimated using target sequence capture relying on existing collections of DNAs and herbarium specimens as well as new field collections. The researchers will use recently described Solanaceae fruit fossils, including two in the tomatillo clade, to calibrate the tree, and apply methods including state-dependent diversification to estimate transition rates to and away from the inflated calyx state. They will specifically test the hypothesis that gains of inflation are irreversible and that they proceed via an intermediate stage in which the calyx expands to cover the fruit but does not inflate. Finally, the project will explore the coupling of this physical defense (calyx elongation and inflation) with chemical defenses. In particular, the researchers posit that independent gains of inflated fruiting calyces are correlated with increased production of glandular trichomes and sticky, insecticidal acylsugars. Together, these three aims will allow the researchers to trace the assembly of a complex plant defense syndrome, which like many trait syndromes, combines convergently-evolved morphological and biochemical innovations as an adaptive response to a shared ecological driver. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-06

This CAREER project focuses on the plasma waves in the Earth's magnetosphere, the region of space surrounding the Earth's magnetic field that protects us from the solar wind. Magnetospheres are dynamic, interconnected systems composed of complex and varied populations of particles and waves. At Earth, electromagnetic waves are a primary mechanism through which energy is transferred across particle populations, connecting distant regions in space and time. These waves can accelerate electrons to high energies, generating the Van Allen radiation belts, which pose a hazard to spacecraft and humans in space. Waves can also drive particle precipitation into the atmosphere, modifying ozone and atmospheric chemistry and generating dazzling auroral displays. Additionally, the team will train future satellite engineers and scientists through involvement in CubeSat development. The project aims to expand the space hardware workforce and broaden participation in one of the essential directions of this field. Magnetospheres are dynamic, interconnected systems composed of complex and varied populations of particles and waves. At Earth, plasma waves are a primary mechanism through which energy is transferred across particle populations, connecting regions such as the distant magnetotail with the inner magnetosphere and even down to the ionosphere and atmosphere. These waves can act as particle heating and energization drivers, generating the radiation belts. Plasma waves can also drive particle precipitation into the atmosphere, modifying ionospheric conductance and atmospheric chemistry. With the growth of the Heliophysics System Observatory and multi-spacecraft missions, we can now piece together a more complete picture of the three-dimensional dynamics of the complex magnetospheric system. The proposal will utilize multipoint measurements to study the drivers, structure, and effects of waves in Earth's magnetosphere. The team will analyze multi-mission wave data from the Heliophysics System Observatory to characterize the fine and larger scale properties of various wave modes, looking at overall spatial extents and spatial scales of modulation and wave property evolution. As evidenced by upcoming Heliophysics missions and mission concepts, constellation missions have become the future of magnetospheric science, and with the continuing development of small spacecraft and CubeSats, these multipoint measurements are now more easily obtainable. Therefore, as part of this effort, the team will address workforce development, specifically by training future satellite engineers and scientists through involvement in CubeSats. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-06

This Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award will support research to study how a tissue’s mechanical properties regulate the innate immune response, specifically the population and function of what are termed neutrophils-a of innate immune cells. Neutrophil-a cells play a crucial role in clearing infections, healing wounds, and fighting disease. To perform these tasks, they must navigate complex tissues throughout the body. While the chemical signals that guide neutrophil function are well studied, how the mechanical properties of a tissue influence neutrophil function remains unclear. Understanding this relationship is important because neutrophil dysfunction is linked to diseases that also involve changes in tissue mechanics and include cancer, heart disease, fibrosis, and conditions such as aging. This research will explore how mechanical changes in the tissue affect neutrophil function at a basic level and could help us understand how these changes worsen disease outcomes. This project will also develop a basic curriculum designed to improve scientific literacy in immunology to enhance participation in public health initiatives through community-engaged outreach while improving retention and recruitment of underrepresented students in science and engineering using both real-world applications and inclusion in the curriculum development process. The research objective of this project is to define how matrix modulus, viscoelasticity, and dynamic tissue stiffening regulate neutrophil function in inflammation while determining how these mechanical features regulate the expression and secretion of inflammatory mediators in the tissue microenvironment. This will be accomplished through three research objectives. The first research objective will decouple viscoelasticity and stiffness to determine their individual role in modulating the neutrophil response. The second research objective will investigate the effect of dynamic tissue stiffening on the neutrophil response. The third research objective will identify genetic expression and secretion profiles that are altered in response to changes in mechanical properties. All objectives will use novel engineered collagen-alginate hydrogels in an inflammation-on-a-chip microfluidic device that recapitulates key features of the inflammatory microenvironment including a model blood vessel, a tunable extracellular matrix, primary human cells, and an inflammatory stimulus. Collectively, these results will establish mechanical features of the extracellular matrix as critical regulators of neutrophil function and broadly impact our understanding of innate immune cell regulation in healthy tissues and disease. Specifically, the results will provide mechanistic insight into how mechanical cues from the matrix regulate neutrophils providing targets for modulating their function in infection and disease. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-05

Knowledge of internal body temperature over time is critical for many medical and wellness applications. A non-invasive wearable core body thermometer does not exist on the market and the development of such technology is a challenging research topic. This project extends beyond the current state of the art to enable better estimation of internal temperature, with a focus on monitoring brain temperature during cardiac surgeries. Upper aortic dissection surgery requires deep brain cooling to below 20°C and is one of the three most dangerous surgeries with a 17% mortality rate, 66% risk of cognitive loss, and risk of bleeding and stroke. Today there is no way to directly measure brain temperature, and invasive catheters are used to measure bladder or nasal temperatures which lag the actual brain temperature by up to 8°C during cooling. This project is developing a sensor that can reduce the mortality rate of aortic repair by 20% and reduce the risk of permanent cognitive loss. There are 29,000 such procedures in the US annually. Additional needs for monitoring brain temperature, with 1.3 million persons annually, include ICU patients hospitalized from cardiac arrest, stroke, or brain trauma (TBI). Accurate and non-invasive measurements of internal body temperature also enable real-time monitoring of a patient who may be septic or is experiencing a heat stroke. This project contributes significantly to the field of microwave thermometry by introducing innovative solutions to the long-standing challenge of being able to pin-point the location where internal heating is occurring. In addition to its impacts in medical applications, the research outcome will also benefit industrial applications, such as high-power microwave processing for ceramic fabrication, waste pyrolysis, and fuel-cell material sintering, by monitoring the internal temperature deep inside hot materials. This project addresses improving spatial resolution in thermometry using near-field microwave passive sensing with receiver arrays. Subsurface tissue temperature can be non-invasively estimated from a single passive radiometric sensor mounted on the skin. The peak of the black-body curve for human temperature is in the infrared (IR) portion of the spectrum. Limited to classical electromagnetic skin depth, the sensing depth at IR is only a few millimeters, implying the need of using lower microwave frequencies for deep tissue sensing (>3 cm) where the received thermal noise power is in the -100 dBm range and requires very sensitive receivers. Currently, the quiet radio-astronomy band at 1.4 GHz gives a good trade-off between sensing depth and near-field antenna size. The project explores the following three research tasks: 1) Theory and simulations of three fundamentally different approaches for improving spatial resolution of near-field microwave radiometry while maintaining temperature sensitivity; 2) Designs of receiver, near-field antenna and signal processing as experimental validation of the most promising approaches; 3) Investigation of a new alternative and complementary active low-power approach based on resonant loading and temperature dependence of the complex tissue permittivity. The research addresses the unsolved problem of measuring internal body temperature noninvasively with high spatial resolution. While a phased array is typically used for improving spatial resolution in the far field for coherent signals, the innovation here takes advantage of the statistical nature of thermal noise power combined with electromagnetic reciprocity. Theory shows that a scalar measurement is related to a spatial interference pattern, which helps differentiate temperature at different locations deep in tissues. The project aims to demonstrate, for the first time, how an array of near-field antennas and receivers can provide spatial information of temperature sensing. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-05

This project aims to measure ongoing slip along the Sagaing Fault in Myanmar, near and south of the epicenter of the magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck on March 28,2025, killing more than 3,600 people. While the fault near Mandalay slipped by about 15 feet (5 m), the southern end moved only a few feet. Thus, it remains unclear whether the southern segment is now locked or if it continues to slip slowly, raising concerns about future earthquakes near Yangon, a megacity of over 8 million residents. Using highly sensitive instruments called creepmeters, the team will monitor surface fault movement with 1/10,000 inch (2.5 μm) precision, recording the information every minute. These measurements will help determine whether the fault is still moving silently (afterslip), which can precede future ruptures. A similar reduction in slip was seen during the 1906 San Andreas Fault earthquake, though such detailed monitoring was not possible then. Project data will help assess ongoing seismic hazard in one of Southeast Asia's most densely populated regions as well as to test instrumentation that may be used when similar type earthquakes occur in the U.S.. Following the Mw 7.7 Mandalay earthquake, segments of the Sagaing Fault are expected to be slipping slowly through the process of afterslip. This silent fault motion typically occurs near and beyond rupture terminations and may persist for over a year before decaying to negligible rates. Measuring the evolution of this slip will allow the team to assess how frictional properties of the fault were altered by the mainshock. An increase in slip rate may signal elevated seismic hazard, including the possibility of future triggered earthquakes. The team will deploy highly sensitive creepmeters capable of resolving 2.5 μm to record fault motion continuously once-per-minute. These instruments can detect both dextral (horizontal) slip and fault dilation. Singapore-based collaborators, already active in Myanmar, will host and operate the devices as part of a new, instrument-based afterslip study. This project focuses on the southern segment of the rupture, where slip during the earthquake was significantly less than further north. Southward propagation of afterslip into this area poses a direct threat to Yangon, a city of over 8 million. Unlike satellite-based geodetic methods, which offer only weekly resolution and far lower sensitivity, the ground-based data will provide high-resolution insight into near-field fault deformation. This study will fill a critical observational gap in understanding the evolution of afterslip and its role in post-seismic hazard. It also provides a rare opportunity to study fault mechanics in near-real time, in a region of high vulnerability and limited prior instrumentation. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-05

Domestic animals play a key role in adaptation to life in high latitude and cold environments where frigid and dry environments pose particularly significant challenges to human life. Beginning with the domestication of the dog, important animal domestication events have deeply impacted cultures and landscapes. Recent archaeological research points to a crucial geographic role in the dispersal of early modern humans, the initial spread of domestic horses and ruminant livestock, the innovation of mounted riding, and the formation of transcontinental networks of interaction, movement, and trade. This project uses archaeological research and cutting-edge scientific investigation of rare and well-preserved animal remains to assess the role of early grassland cultures in animal domestication and dispersal, and evaluate their impact on the ancient and modern world. The research supports the education and training of students and the public. Working with a large interdisciplinary team of scientific collaborators, the PI conducts archaeological excavation and survey at sites with exceptional organic preservation, including a dry cave and melting mountain snow and ice deposits identified through prior scholarship. Analyzing animal remains from these sites through stable isotopes, ancient DNA, radiocarbon dating, and archaeozoology, the project produces new datasets for reconstructing ancient ecological dynamics and human-animal interactions. Team members generate new paleoenvironmental datasets from ice and lakes important for understanding the relationship of these key events to changing climate and ecology. Paired with new toolkits for understanding animal transport through osteology, these efforts produce a model for the domestication and spread of domestic animals in environmental context. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.