Posted on June 4, 2026 in ASRC News, Environmental Sciences Initiative, Nanoscience Initiative, Photonics Initiative, Structural Biology Initiative
Six CUNY ASRC researchers are simultaneous NSF CAREER Award recipients
The Advanced Science Research Center at the CUNY Graduate Center (CUNY ASRC) has reached an extraordinary milestone: Six of its faculty members currently hold National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Program awards, one of the nation’s highest honors for early-career scientists. Together, the awards represent more than $4.2 million in research funding.
The NSF CAREER Award supports promising junior faculty who have the potential to become academic leaders in both research and education. It is one of the NSF’s most prestigious awards for early-career faculty, recognizing researchers who are conducting innovative research at the frontiers of science, engineering, and technology while also demonstrating leadership through education, outreach, and service.
For the CUNY ASRC, the accomplishment is especially striking. The center has approximately 20 tenure-line faculty members, and since its founding in 2014, only nine faculty members have joined the CUNY ASRC early enough in their careers to meet NSF eligibility criteria for young investigators. Having six simultaneous CAREER awards among such a small and highly specialized faculty is a rare distinction, and it is especially striking that the awardees span four of the CUNY ASRC’s five initiatives.
“To have six NSF CAREER Award winners under one roof at the ASRC at the same time is a remarkable achievement by any measure,” said Mark E. Hauber, executive director of the CUNY ASRC. “For an organization of our size, it is especially impressive that well more than half of our eligible faculty have earned these NSF awards. These awards recognize not only the creativity and rigor of our early-career faculty and their own peer-mentors at CUNY but also their commitment to training students, engaging the public, and building interdisciplinary science.”
The awardees represent the CUNY ASRC’s broad scientific strengths, from climate science and materials research to photonics, protein design, and sustainable plastics. Their projects also reflect the center’s mission to advance discovery while expanding access to high-level scientific training and dedicated mentorship across CUNY and New York City.
“This success shows the ASRC doing exactly what it was created to do: elevate science across CUNY, New York City, and New York State,” said Joshua C. Brumberg, president of the CUNY Graduate Center. “At the nation’s largest urban public university, our scientists are producing highly innovative research with real-world implications and opening doors for students from every background to take part in that work.”
The six CUNY ASRC CAREER Award recipients are:
Xi Chen, Ph.D. (Nanoscience Initiative), who received a $538,574 award in 2024, is studying materials that respond to humidity in surprising ways. Inspired by nature, Chen is developing a new class of materials that could adsorb water when the local environment is dry and release water when it is humid. The research is expected to advance knowledge of how to program hygroscopic properties of materials and may one day help collect water from dry environments without electricity. His project also includes hands-on learning kits, collaborations with environmental scientists, and demonstrations to the public.
Chris DelRe, Ph.D. (Nanoscience Initiative), who received a $650,000 award in 2025, is developing a new generation of plastics made from naturally occurring biological molecules. His research aims to create materials that are customizable, renewable, and able to break down safely in the environment, offering a potential alternative to conventional plastics that are difficult to reuse or degrade.
Gabriele Grosso, Ph.D. (Photonics Initiative), who received a $537,840 award in 2021, is working to develop materials that use light, rather than electrons, to process and transmit information. By manipulating atomically thin materials with extraordinary precision, his research could help advance faster, more efficient technologies for computing, sensing, and communication. His outreach work brings quantum science to students in local schools and underrepresented communities.
Qiushi Guo, Ph.D. (Photonics Initiative), who received a $550,000 award in 2024, is building powerful, chip-scale laser systems capable of producing ultrafast pulses of light. The work could support advances in portable atomic clocks, biological imaging, national defense, and information processing. Guo’s project also includes training programs in semiconductors and photonics for CUNY students, teachers, and high school students.
Daniel Keedy, Ph.D. (Structural Biology Initiative), who received a $948,848 award in 2026, is using artificial intelligence to improve the design of proteins. Designed proteins could someday help detect disease, deliver drugs, produce clean fuels, or neutralize toxins, but they still fall short of the abilities of natural proteins. Keedy’s project studies how proteins move and uses AI to design proteins that function more like those found in nature.
Andy Reinmann, Ph.D. (Environmental Sciences Initiative), who received a $1,010,810 award in 2022, is studying how forest fragmentation affects forests’ ability to store carbon. His research examines why trees at forest edges often grow faster but are more vulnerable to heat and drought. The findings could improve climate models and help guide strategies for protecting forests in a warming world.
Together, the six awards underscore the CUNY ASRC’s exceptional national profile and its distinctive role within CUNY: advancing ambitious and interdisciplinary science while preparing the next generation of researchers, educators, and innovators.