KU chemistry professor receives NSF CAREER Award for carbon dioxide research

LAWRENCE — A University of Kansas chemistry faculty member has been chosen for a prestigious Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award from the National Science Foundation.

Manar Shoshani, assistant professor of chemistry at KU, received a five-year grant from the NSF totaling more than $769,000 to further his research on converting carbon dioxide selectively so it can be used to develop valuable products such as methanol, formic acid, and oxalic acid. Those products would be useful as common commodity chemicals and have high value in the energy sector and agrichemical and pharmaceutical industries, among other areas.

The CAREER Award, which is the NSF’s most prestigious award for early-career faculty, supports emerging scientists 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. 

The NSF first issued CAREER awards in 1995. Since then, KU’s Lawrence faculty has included 70 recipients: 28 in the School of Engineering, two in the School of Pharmacy and 40 in schools and departments across the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences.

“We are thrilled Dr. Shoshani is receiving this esteemed recognition,” said Arash Mafi, executive dean of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences at KU. “His work represents the top-notch research being conducted within the College that advances scientific inquiry and leads to real world applications.”

Shoshani said he was honored to receive the early-career recognition and is grateful it provides support to train his students as well.

“It means a lot to me and is a boost of confidence,” Shoshani said. “And it is going to allow our group to not only carry out our research program but also to train the next generation of students in synthetic inorganic and organometallic chemistry.”

Though he has only been at the university since August 2024, Shoshani said he is impressed with the strong research community he has found at KU.

“Though my experience here has been short so far, I’ve been blown away by the level of collegiality in the Department of Chemistry,” Shoshani said. “It’s been a great area to foster new ideas as well as collaborations. There’s a lot of good energy on a lot of levels here.”