NC State announced its 2024-25 class of Goodnight Early Career Innovators today. This program recognizes and rewards promising NC State early-career faculty whose scholarship is in STEM or STEM education. The 25 faculty selected will receive $22,000 ­for each of the next three years to support their scholarship and research endeavors.

“The Goodnights’ investment in our faculty helps us recruit and retain innovative scholars and educators, and ensures they have the resources they need to address our world’s grand challenges,” said Chancellor Randy Woodson. “We are incredibly grateful to the Goodnights for their support of our outstanding faculty.”

Faculty members eligible for the award must be tenure-track assistant professors at the time of nomination and their scholarship must clearly and substantively contribute to innovations and advancement in STEM or STEM education. Nominees were evaluated based on evidence of early productivity in research and innovation, which may include a strong early record of scholarly publication or dissemination appropriate to their discipline, external funding or recognition as an early career leader in their field.

Nominees were recommended by their colleges and selected by a committee of distinguished faculty from across the STEM disciplines at NC State. Thirty-eight faculty members were nominated for the award.

“The Goodnights’ gift provides the resources necessary to increase the impact that these faculty are already making in their discipline,” said Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Warwick Arden. “It also provides a great deal of flexibility for faculty to pursue new lines of research.”

This year’s class of Goodnight Early Career Innovators includes:

Katherine Anarde, assistant professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering

Michael Bradshaw, assistant professor of entomology and plant pathology

Sunghwan Byun, assistant professor of STEM Education

Nathan Crook, assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering

Catherine Davis, assistant professor of marine, earth and atmospheric sciences

Basheerah Enahora, assistant professor of agricultural and human sciences

Joseph Gage, assistant professor of crop and soil sciences

Jessica Gluck, assistant professor of textile engineering, chemistry and science

Lucie Guertault, assistant professor of biological and agricultural engineering

Christophe Guilluy, assistant professor of molecular biomedical sciences

Emily Hector, assistant professor of statistics

Jordan Kern, assistant professor of industrial and systems engineering

Sebastian König, assistant professor of physics

Ravi Kulkarni, assistant professor of population health and pathobiology

Xiaojing Liu,  assistant professor of molecular and structural biochemistry

Samantha Marshall, assistant professor of teacher education and learning sciences

Erin McKenney, assistant professor of applied ecology

Jun Ohata, assistant professor of chemistry

Kelly Oten, assistant professor of forestry and environmental resources

Kasie Raymann, assistant professor of plant and microbial biology

Sara Shashaani, assistant professor of industrial and systems engineering

Sara Villani, assistant professor of entomology and plant pathology

Justin Whitehill, assistant professor of forestry and environmental resources

Lirong Xiang, assistant professor of biological and agricultural engineering

Rong Yin, assistant professor of textile engineering, chemistry and science

This post was originally published in NC State News.