FIRST Awards 2024 cohort announced

November 7, 2024

Selection marks 30th year of Nebraska EPSCoR program serving state’s higher education faculty development

With funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), Nebraska EPSCoR conducts its annual FIRST Awards: to help the state’s early-career scientist-educators prepare to pursue initial large research grants from federal agencies.

Thanks to the funding and expert proposal reviews engaged by Nebraska EPSCoR, many FIRST Awards participants succeed in securing NSF CAREER Awards or comparable distinctions.

This year more than a dozen CAREER Award aspirants submitted pre-proposals to Nebraska EPSCoR’s FIRST Awards competition; several of these applicants merited FIRST Award “Finalist” status. In early fall 2024, these finalists were invited to advance and prepare full proposals patterned after the NSF CAREER Award format; all FIRST Award Finalists gain expert scientific reviews on these submissions. From the finalists group, FIRST Award Recipients are chosen by the Nebraska EPSCoR State Committee to receive $25,000 for their further national award submission efforts (along with contribution from each host department)—in addition to the valuable reviews by relevant science leaders nationwide via Nebraska EPSCoR.

On November 4, at the annual meeting of Nebraska EPSCoR’s State Committee, the following FIRST Award Recipients were selected:

  • Liang Chen, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
  • Madhur Mangalam, University of Nebraska at Omaha Department of Biomechanics
  • Yury Salkovskiy, University of Nebraska at Omaha Department of Biomechanics
  • Joe (Xinqiu) Yao, University of Nebraska at Omaha Department of Chemistry
  • Xiaoqian (Tiffany) Zhang, University of Nebraska at Omaha Computer Science Department
  • Peng Zhong, University of Nebraska Medical Center Neurological Sciences

More information about Nebraska EPSCoR’s FIRST Awards program is at https://epscor.nebraska.edu/programs/first-awards, including past Recipients since the program began in 2004. Funding for this program currently comes from Nebraska EPSCoR's NSF RII Track-1 Award OIA #2044049: the Emergent Quantum Materials and Technologies (EQUATE) project.

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