Professor Nagarjuna Gavvalapalli wins the National Science Foundation CAREER Award for research on porous nanoribbons synthesis

February 28th, 2020

Nagarjuna Gavvalapalli is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry and a member of the Institute for Soft Matter Synthesis and Metrology (ISMSM) at Georgetown University. He recently received the prestigious National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award. The award is given 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. Gavvalapalli will be funded at $600K over 5 years starting this May for his research titled: “CAREER: Bifacial Cyclophanes for Solution-Phase Synthesis of Semiconducting Porous Nanoribbons.”

Nag’s research develops novel methods to synthesize porous nanoribbons, a two-dimensional class of polymers inspired by sheets of carbon atoms. The custom electrical properties and pore sizes of these nanoribbons may find applications that span from disease detection to energy conversion. His innovative educational program employs a “Superhero Scienceplanation” approach that taps into our ageless fascination with superheroes to convey the roles that polymers play in today’s society.