UAF researchers awarded NSF early-career grants

May 23, 2018

Two researchers at the University of Alaska Fairbanks have received awards and project funding from the National Science Foundation.

Srijan Aggarwal, an assistant professor at the College of Engineering and Mines, and Carie Green, an associate professor at the School of Education, were awarded CAREER grants this spring through the NSF Faculty Early Career Development Program. The awards recognize early-career faculty who have strong potential to show leadership in their field by integrating education and research.

"These are very competitive and important research grants for faculty early in their academic and research lives,” said UAF Vice Chancellor for Research Larry Hinzman. “Receiving such a large and prestigious award early in one’s career enables a researcher to focus upon the challenge of the problem, expand the understanding and publish the results.”

Aggarwal, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, was granted a $507,986 award in April to investigate the bacterial biofilm that coats water pipes. His five-year study aims to gain a better knowledge of the structure and strength of attachment of biofilms, and how to remove them. The issue can cause serious problems in drinking water distribution systems. Results from this research have the potential to provide utilities and water plants with new strategies for the removal of biofilms and to ensure the availability of safe drinking water for the public.

Green, an associate professor of graduate education, will receive $591,600 for a five-year project to explore how exposure to the natural world shapes children’s values, perceptions and behaviors. Her project will use parent surveys, children’s drawings and descriptions, and child-led nature tours with wearable cameras. She'll investigate . The project will track two groups of children — one in the primarily Alaska Native village of Unalakleet and the other a set of non-Native children in Fairbanks.

Including Aggarwal and Green, 13 UAF researchers have received NSF CAREER grants since 2000.