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National Science Foundation Gives High Honors to Sambruna, Mark
By Lynn Burke
The National Science Foundation (NSF) gave two of its very prestigious CAREER Awards in April to George Mason assistant professors Rita Sambruna, Department of Physics and Astronomy and School of Computational Sciences, and Brian Mark, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Through the CAREER Awards, NSF recognizes and supports the work of the top young faculty-researchers in the country, who it believes will be the leaders of tomorrow in research and education.
"The NSF CAREER Awards are extremely competitive, and I am delighted that two of our faculty have been recognized for their high achievements in their early careers and for the promise each of them offers for even greater accomplishments in the future," says Christopher Hill, vice provost for research.
Both Sambruna and Mark were pleased and surprised with receiving the awards. Sambruna's award of $387,170 over five years from NSF's Directorate of Astronomy will be used to hire a postdoctoral research associate and undergraduate students to help with her research that will focus on the jets of plasma that shoot out from black holes. According to Sambruna, this research, which aims at answering fundamental questions about the energetics of jets, is particularly timely given the availability of high-quality observations from the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Hubble Space Telescope, which she has already secured. The research will complement studies already supported by a Long-Term Space Astrophysics grant that Sambruna received from NASA last fall.
In addition, one-third of the grant will go toward educational opportunities, which include the creation of an astronomy club on campus and the purchase of a radio telescope. "Another educational opportunity forwarded by the grant is the devising of science workshops for local high school teachers to give them a more extensive background in physics and astronomy," says Sambruna. The Department of Physics and Astronomy is partially matching the NSF award.
"By awarding Dr. Sambruna a prestigious CAREER Award, the NSF is only verifying what we have known since meeting her and watching her work, namely, that she is an outstanding scholar and scientist who brings to the department and George Mason University, nothing less than excellence," says Maria Dworzecka, chair of Physics and Astronomy.
Mark's grant of $343,000 over five years from NSF's Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering will go toward research on the design, modeling, and control of high-performance communication networks. "The research will investigate new architectures and control algorithms for optimizing the performance of next-generation high-speed optical networks and wireless mobile networks," Mark says. "My hope is that the research will further enhance George Mason's growing reputation as a first-rate research institution and also act as a catalyst for developing strong collaborative partnerships with local industry and government laboratories, which help to increase the relevance and potential impact of the research."
"The award is extremely important to a young faculty member because it represents a significant recognition by a well-recognized authority such as the NSF," says Andre Manitius, chair of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department. "Brian is an outstanding faculty member and the award confirms it."
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