U of A Researchers Awarded Early Career Grants by Department of Energy

Photo by University Relations

Salvador Barraza-Lopez (left), John B. Shaw

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Two University of Arkansas researchers have been awarded $750,000 Early Career Research grants by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.

Salvador Barraza-Lopez, assistant professor of physics, and John B. Shaw, assistant professor of geosciences, are among 49 scientists nationwide to receive the award.

Barraza-Lopez will use his grant to further research two-dimensional materials that are being investigated as candidates to power the next generation of electronic devices. He recently led an international research team that found black phosphorous and monochalcogenide monolayers act differently than any other known 2-D materials at any given temperature.

“We had worked on graphene for a number of years, and took the deliberate decision to explore new two-dimensional materials that are not as intensively studied,” Barraza-Lopez said. “This grant proves that moving away from the better-traveled path was worth the risk.”

Barraza-Lopez joined the U of A faculty in 2011. He has been a postdoctoral research associate at both Virginia Polytechnic and State University and the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Shaw will use his grant to further his study of sedimentary basins, which have a complicated architecture of sandy channel deposits and muddy floodplain deposits. His project is designed to improve the understanding of how water, hydrocarbons and carbon dioxide move through the Earth’s subsurface. 

“It is quite an honor to receive this funding,” Shaw said. “I look forward to pursuing this research with my colleagues and students at the U of A.”

Shaw joined the U of A faculty in 2014 after serving as a National Science Foundation postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Wyoming.

The Early Career Research Program, now in its seventh year, is designed to bolster the nation’s scientific workforce by providing support to exceptional researchers during their crucial early career years, when many scientists do their most formative work.

A list of the 49 awardees, their institutions, and titles of research projects is available on the Early Career Research Program webpage.

About the University of Arkansas: The University of Arkansas provides an internationally competitive education for undergraduate and graduate students in more than 200 academic programs. The university contributes new knowledge, economic development, basic and applied research, and creative activity while also providing service to academic and professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the University of Arkansas among only 2 percent of universities in America that have the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the University of Arkansas among its top American public research universities. Founded in 1871, the University of Arkansas comprises 10 colleges and schools and maintains a low student-to-faculty ratio that promotes personal attention and close mentoring.