KU faculty in public affairs, math and engineering receive NSF CAREER awards
LAWRENCE — Three faculty members at the University of Kansas have won prestigious Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program awards from the National Science Foundation. Their projects aim to understand voting-rights advocacy groups, make advancements in numerical linear algebra and fortify security operations centers.
The recipients are Brandon Davis, assistant professor of public affairs & administration; Agnieszka Międlar, associate professor of mathematics; and Alexandru Bardas, assistant professor of electrical engineering & computer science.
The five-year awards are designed to support “early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization.”
“These KU faculty are showing great promise as future leaders in their fields,” said Simon Atkinson, vice chancellor for research. “This recognition will further enable them to make discoveries and innovations that will facilitate understanding and foster change in our community, state, nation and beyond.”
The NSF first issued CAREER awards in 1995. Since then, KU’s Lawrence faculty has included 60 recipients: 22 in the School of Engineering, two in the School of Pharmacy and 36 in schools and departments across the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences.
More on the recipients and their projects:
Brandon Davis is an assistant professor of public affairs & administration. Davis received a CAREER grant to study voting-rights advocacy groups. His project will focus on the Alabama Democratic Conference and how it sustained a voting rights campaign from 1965 to 1989. Davis will compile research materials on minority political organizations and their legal campaigns. He will also create a short documentary.
Agnieszka Międlar is an associate professor of mathematics. Her CAREER project aims to enable algorithmic and software advancements in the field of numerical linear algebra, which can be applied to technology in unmanned autonomous vehicles, wearable health care devices and more.
Alexandru Bardas is an assistant professor of electrical engineering & computer science. His CAREER grant will enable him to investigate how to boost the effectiveness of security operations centers, which are facilities that deal with security issues and protect enterprise computer networks. Organizations use these centers for cybersecurity and maintaining regulatory compliance.
Top image, from left: Brandon Davis, assistant professor of public affairs & administration; Agnieszka Międlar, associate professor of mathematics; and Alexandru Bardas, assistant professor of electrical engineering & computer science.